Good morning, and welcome to McGraw Hill Financial's 2016 Annual Shareholders Meeting. The meeting is being conducted at company's offices in New York City. I'd like to inform you that this call is being recorded for broadcast. All participants are in a listen only mode. This call is also being webcast from McGraw Hill Financial's website and will be available for replay about 2 hours after the end of this meeting, both by phone and the web.
To access the webcast and slides, go to www.mhfi.com. That's mhfi for mcgrawhillfinancialincorporated.com and click on the link for the Annual Meeting webcast. Please stand by. The meeting will start momentarily.
Good morning. My name is Kate Brennan. I'm the Corporate Secretary here at McGraw Health Financial. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Annual Meeting is also being made available by teleconference and by audio webcast.
To minimize interference with teleconference and webcast, we ask that those of you joining us here in person, please turn off all electronic devices for the remainder of the meeting. Before we begin the formal part of today's meeting, let me provide certain cautionary remarks about forward looking statements that may be made during the annual meeting and during our CEO, Doug Peterson's remarks. Except for historical information, the matters discussed during today's meeting may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including projections, estimates, descriptions of future events. Any such statements are based on current expectations and current economic conditions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from results anticipated in these forward looking statements. We direct listeners and the audience to the cautionary statements contained in our periodic reports with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Please be advised that we have certified lists of shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 7, 2016, who are entitled to vote at the Samuel Shareholders' Meeting. Such lists have been open for inspection by shareholders. We also have copies of the notice of meeting, proxy materials, annual report and affidavit of mailing relating to this annual meeting. The affidavits will be filed with the records of this meeting. The Board of Directors has designated a representative of Computershare Trust Company to act as Inspector of Election.
Jim Kitska, a representative of Computershare Trust Company is present here today. Mr. Kitzke has been duly sworn and his oath will also be filed with the records of the annual meeting. In addition, shares of common stock representing approximately 90% of the outstanding shares in McGraw Hill Financial and representing more than majority of the votes entitled to be cast at this annual meeting are represented either in person or by proxy. Mr.
Chairman, the annual meeting has been duly convened, a quorum is present and the business of the annual meeting may proceed. Ladies and gentlemen, our Chairman, Mr. Ed Haldeman.
Thank you, Kate, and good morning. My name is Ed Haldeman, Chairman of McGraw Hill Financial. With a quorum present, I call the meeting to order. Before we begin the formal part of today's meeting, I would like to introduce you to your directors. We have an outstanding Board, whose expertise, global perspective and leadership are a tremendous source of pride for the corporation.
First, I would like to introduce Doug Peterson, seated at the table here with me, who is President and CEO of the corporation as well as a Director. Next, I would like to introduce the 8 independent directors who will stand for reelection today along with Doug and me. I would ask each director to stand as I say their name and to remain standing. Please hold your applause until all have been introduced. Sirwin Vishaf, Chairman of JP Morgan Securities Plc and the UK Financial Reporting Council Bill Green, Retired Executive Chairman, Accenture Rebecca Jacoby, Senior Vice President, Operations of Cisco Systems Hilda Ochoa Brilenburg, Founder and Chairman, Strategic Investment Group Sir Michael Rake, Chairman, VT Group and Worldpay Ed Rust, Chairman and Former Chief Executive Officer, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Kurt Schmoke, President, University of Baltimore.
In addition, Dick Thornburg, Chairman of Credit Suisse Holdings USA and Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse Group could not be with us today. Let's salute our directors. Thanks very much. It is clear we have a world class Board. These directors have broad experience, excellent judgment and take their fiduciary responsibilities very seriously.
Simply put, this Board is very well suited to guiding this company into the next phase of growth and success. At this time, I want to acknowledge Bob McGraw and Sydney Terrell, who are retiring from the Board today and will not stand for reelection. Bob joined the Board in 1995. Throughout his career, he held a number of senior management positions with McGraw Hill and this year is Bob's 40th year with the company. Sidney joined the Board in 1996.
He was appointed Chairman of Pearson Plc, a global education company in January of this year and continues to serve as Chairman Emeritus of Eli Lilly and Company and as a member of the Board of IBM Corporation. I want to thank Bob and Sydney for their distinguished service and innumerable contributions to this company over many years. They have served the company and our shareholders with extraordinary integrity and commitment. Let's salute them as well. We also have a number of executives with us this morning as well.
You have already been introduced to Doug Peterson, our CEO and Kate Brennan, our Corporate Secretary. Doug will introduce the other members of the senior management team during his remarks. We will now proceed to the formal business of our annual meeting, the purpose of which is to 1, elect 10 directors 2, approve an amendment to the company's restated certificate of incorporation to change the name of the company to S and P Global Inc. From McGraw Hill Financial Inc. 3, a proven amendment to the company's restated certificate of incorporation to provide that the company's Board of Directors shall consist of not less than 8 persons.
4, approve on an advisory basis the executive compensation program for the company's named executive officers. 5, ratify the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2016 and 6, take up any other matter that may properly come before this meeting. Ballots will be distributed to those who want to vote in person on any of the proposals. Those desiring ballots, please raise your hands. I would remind you that if you have sent in a proxy or voted by telephone or over the Internet, it is not necessary to vote here in person.
After all the items have been voted upon, we will collect the ballots for tabulation by the inspectors of election. Anyone looking for a ballot? Time will be provided for specific questions relating to each of the proposals as they are introduced. Doug Peterson will offer remarks immediately following the business portion of the meeting. Further time will be provided following Doug's remarks for questions on other matters.
In order for remarks from the floor to be heard clearly by everyone, we have placed microphones on each side of the room. I ask that each shareholder who wishes to ask a question or make a statement, use one of these microphones. If that is not convenient, we also have a handheld microphone available. If you have a question or remark, please state your name and whether you are a shareholder or represent the shareholder. As a matter of courtesy, please limit yourself to one question or remark until everyone who wishes to do so has an opportunity to ask a question or make a statement.
The first item to be voted upon is the election of 10 directors. The names of the 10 directors nominated for election are Sir Winfried Bischoff, William D. Green, Charles D. Haldeman, Jr, Rebecca Jacoby, Hilda Ochoa Brillemborg, Douglas L. Peterson, Sir Michael Rake, Edward V.
Russ, Jr, Curt L. Schmoke, Richard E. Thornburg. The floor is now open for questions or comments regarding the election of these 10 directors. Anyone?
Proposal to approve an amendment to the company's restated certificate of incorporation to change the name of the company to S&P Global Inc. From McGraw Hill Financial Inc. The floor is now open for questions or comments relating to this item. Since there is no further discussion on this proposal, I declare the voting closed on this item. The 3rd item to be voted upon is the proposal to approve an amendment to the company's restated certificate of incorporation to provide that the company's Board of Directors shall consist of not less than 8 persons.
The floor is now open for questions or comments relating to this item. Since there is no further discussion on this proposal, I declare the voting closed on this item. The 4th item to be voted upon is the proposal to approve on an advisory basis the executive compensation program for the company's named executive officers. The floor is now open for questions or comments relating to this item. Since there is no further discussion on this proposal, I declare the voting closed on this item.
The 5th item to be voted upon is the ratification of the selection of Ernst and Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2016. Ray Mikovits, the partner of Ernst and Young, responsible for the McGraw Hill Financial Account is present today at our meeting and will be available for questions. Ray, could you please stand and identify yourself? Thanks, Ray. The floor is now open for questions or comments relating to this item.
Since there is no further discussion on this proposal, I declare the voting closed on this item. This concludes the voting on all formal business items. Anyone voting in person may now turn in their ballots. I think we had none. Any such ballots would be taken into account by the Inspector of Election in the final tally of votes.
However, they are not expected to change the outcome of today's results. The preliminary tally of votes by the Inspector of Elections shows that, 1, the 10 persons nominated as Directors of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. Have been elected 2, the proposed amendments of the company's restated certificate of incorporation to change the name of the company to S and P Global, Inc. From McGraw Hill Financial Inc. Has been approved.
3, the proposed amendments of the company's restated certificate of incorporation to provide that the company's Board of Directors shall consist of not less than 8 persons has been approved 4, the proposal to approve on an advisory basis, the executive compensation program for the company's named executive officers has been approved 5, the ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2016 has been approved. The certificate of the inspectors of election will be filed with the records of the meeting and the final results will be available on or before May 3 in a Form 8 ks filing. The meeting is now open for any other questions or comments concerning any subject that has properly come before this meeting. Anyone? Yes, sir.
Just the general questions.
Yes, general questions that have to do with the business portion of the annual meeting as distinct from questions that might be appropriate for CEO after he gives us a business report? Okay. Anything regarding the Annual Meeting and the business portion of the Annual Meeting? Okay. Given that there are no further questions, let me take a moment to thank our shareholders for their support.
The number of shares voted and the support demonstrated for the slate of directors is very much appreciated. There being no further business, I will now entertain a motion that the meeting be adjourned. Thank you. We have it's been moved and seconded. All in favor?
Opposed? This concludes the formal part of our annual meeting. I declare this meeting to be adjourned. With that, let me turn the floor over to Doug Peterson, who will offer a few remarks regarding all that the company accomplished in 2015 and its prospects for continued growth. It is now my pleasure to introduce Doug.
Thank you, Ed. Good morning to everyone here meeting in our global headquarters in Lower Manhattan. And to those of you that are listening on the webcast, we're delighted that all of you could be with us today. Before we get underway, I'd like to introduce the members of the senior management team and those of you who are here will stand when I see your name. John Beresford, President, Standard and Poor's Rating Services Jack Callahan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mike Chin, President, S&P Global Market Intelligence Imogen Dillon Hatcher, President, Platts Don Howard, Chief of Risk and Compliance Courtney Godalldig, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs Franz Gingress, Executive Vice President, Human Resources David Goldenberg, Acting General Counsel Alex Maturi, CEO, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Paul Scheer, Chief Global Economist.
Ladies and gentlemen, your leadership team. Thank you. We're very fortunate to have such a talented leadership team. Today is an exciting day for the company. As you heard with the preliminary tally of votes, shareholders have approved our name change to S and P Global.
Getting to this moment has been an extraordinary journey, Repositioning this great company, a company with a rich heritage and a proud legacy dating back to the 1800s is a terrific tribute to everything this business stands for and an endorsement of our growth strategy. It is within this context that I'd like to share the remarkable story of what is now S and P Global. 1st, we'll quickly review our recent performance. We'll then discuss S and P Global, our core values and purpose. And 3rd, we'll look into the future as we go through some powerful long term trends.
Let's take a step back and begin with a little history. This company has undergone profound changes in the last several years. A key part of the operating strategy has been to exit slower growing, lower margin businesses. These businesses have core operating characteristics different than the Financial Intelligence franchise in which we've been investing. Since 2013, the company divested Aviation Week, McGraw Hill Construction and McGraw Hill Education.
As you know, earlier this month, we also announced the sale of J. D. Power for $1,100,000,000 in cash and we're very pleased with this outcome. Over the last 3 years, the management team has also built size and scale in global market leading businesses in the capital and commodity markets. We've increased our majority stake in CRISIL, India's leading rating agency and knowledge outsourcing company.
In addition, we've been building on the strength of Platts. For example, we acquired Eclipse Energy, Petromedia and last month we added commodity flow to build out capabilities and trade flow analytics. And last year we acquired SNL Financial to bring synergies and new capabilities to the portfolio. We're quite pleased with the integration of S and L into the company to help drive our revenue growth and productivity. Our newly combined S and L and Capital IQ business is now called S&P Global Market Intelligence and Mike Chin and his team are moving rapidly on many fronts, including diversifying the client base by quickly expanding into the corporate market.
Of course, it's not all about transactions. In 2015, we created a number of new product offerings. Last year, we launched the first ever index that tracks the debt of the companies in the S and P 500. We received a great response from the market with this index to be used as the basis for several soon to be launched ETFs. So how did your company perform during this time of transformation?
From 2013 through last year, revenue grew to 6.3% compound annual growth rate and adjusted EPS increased at an 18% CAGR. From 2013 through 2015, we've returned more than $3,000,000,000 to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends. And our stock has increased 77% versus 40% for the S and P 500. Now let me take just a moment to highlight our 2015 results, because we produced strong growth and performance in the face of volatility in the fixed income and equity markets. Last year revenue grew 5%, adjusted operating margin expanded 280 basis points, adjusted diluted EPS increased 17% and our total shareholder return of 12.3 percent outperforms the 1.4% gain in the S and P 500.
That's a very solid foundation to build on. As we move forward, we are focused on creating more growth and driving performance, specifically capitalizing on the opportunities from the S and L integration, making a market leader of the newly formed Global Credit Services Global Credit Risk Services Group in Market Intelligence, which applies all of our capabilities to help clients manage complex credit risk and adding process improvements in centralized functions such as IT, human resources and finance, which leads to better execution and tighter cost control. I am pleased that in a difficult macro environment, our 2016 guidance calls for mid to high single revenue growth and adjusted diluted EPS of $5 to $5.15 That represents 8% EPS growth if we achieve the midpoint of the range. With that context, let me turn to S and P Global and why we are changing our name. Markets all around the globe depend on the transparent and independent ratings benchmarks, data and deep analytics behind the names Standard and Poor's.
S and P traces its roots to 18/60 when analyst Henry Barnum Poor published the journal History of Railroads and Canals in the United States as a means of shedding light on the quickly growing railroad industry. He quoted, the only way to introduce honesty into the management of railroads is to explore everything in or about to the public age, and that's transparency. For more than a century, this company has been guided by the steady hands of great leaders committed to the principles of transparency, independence and high standards. Thanks to pioneers like Mr. Poor and James H.
McGraw and innovators like Lewis Schellback and George Olson who revolutionized the stock market with the launch of the S and P 500, this company and the S and P brand have always represented trusted financial information. This hasn't changed nor will it. Our divisions are all united around a central purpose. We provide the intelligence that is essential to how clients make decisions with conviction. With our new brand, we're also changing the ticker symbol under which our shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Starting tomorrow, S and P Global will trade under the SPGI ticker and to mark the occasion, we'll be ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The evolution of our brand extends beyond just our name and purpose. Our core values of integrity, excellence and relevance are infused in everything we do. And our company's culture must be unified around beliefs, values and behaviors that are common to all of our employees, creating stronger connections across divisions and across the world. The culture we're fostering is about all three of these qualities.
Integrity, we act with integrity and are honest, accountable for our actions. Excellence. We pursue excellence in everything we do. We value results, encourage teamwork and embrace change. And relevance, we provide relevant solutions to our clients and bring passion and a thirst for knowledge in serving them.
We like where we are and the direction we're headed. Earlier, I mentioned we built a great foundation. That sets us to take advantage of some compelling long term growth opportunities. These opportunities are being driven by powerful trends in our markets, and I'd like to highlight 2 of those. 1st, the steady rise of passive investments as cash shifts from actively managed funds is a powerful trend benefiting S and P Dow Jones Indices.
As this business earns its fees on assets invested in products linked to its indices. Consider this, assets under management and exchange traded funds globally are expected to reach $5,000,000,000,000 in 2020 and that's up from $2,600,000,000,000 in 2014. And last year alone, we launched more than 4 50 indices to meet the increasing needs of the market. Another trend we're very excited about is the global expansion of capital markets. The Credit Suisse Research Institute estimated that 36% of the world's corporate bonds will be issued by companies in the emerging markets by 2,030.
That's up from about 14% just a couple of years ago. That amounts to $47,000,000,000,000 This represents huge opportunities across all of our divisions to provide services for fixed income investors. Before we conclude, I want to echo Ed's remarks and acknowledge the long and distinguished service of Bob McGraw and Sydney Terrell. Our sincere thanks to them for all they've done to support the growth and performance of our company. Thank you to all of our directors for your guidance and leadership.
I also want to thank our shareholders for their ongoing support as we move forward as S and P Global. And I want to offer my profound gratitude to our 20,000 employees. Each and every day all around the globe, they are united by the common purpose of providing the essential intelligence that allows companies, governments and individuals to make decisions with conviction. We're so proud of the work that they do. With no further questions or comments, we thank you for your time and being part of this meeting.
And I'm now going to open it up for questions.
Philip Berman, Portfolio Manager and Shareholder. Just some brief comments and questions. First, congratulations to your move to a new high-tech HQ for the hands down number 1 premium quantitative financial company in the world. As compared to other stocks, our stock MHFI has outperformed the general broad spectrum of stocks, in the averages and in our peer category group. In fact, MHFI is one of the only iconic companies which has not had revenue or earnings problems this year and it's fully recovered its momentum moving now to higher highs after the general market malaise in February and the steep decline that we had.
You have stated that we are primarily finished with restructuring moves after the JP Power sales completed later in the fall. As we now seem to be an inflection point in the economy and the stock market, it will be harder to achieve double digit earnings gains unless the extrapolated economic expansion by the Federal Reserve continues with just 2 to 3 interest rate increases projected for 2016. Now that you have a firm handle on the pulse of the company, do you how do you expect your organic growth to materialize? It will be very difficult over the next few years.
First of all, thank you for your comments. We appreciate your shareholding in the company and the recognition of our performance. We have put out our 2016 guidance, which calls for mid to single high digit top line growth and a bottom line delivery of $5 to $5.15 which would represent an 8% EPS growth. This is our current guidance and the way we see the market for the next 12 months.
Okay. How with the company more focused now, NHFI, are you open to acquisitions later on? And what size could we expect in the maximum dollar range?
We have a capital allocation plan that we work very closely with our Board on, which has a hierarchy of ways to use cash. The best way for us to use our cash is to invest in our organic growth. Clearly, we're always looking at what could be potential acquisitions. We have no guidelines about size. But remember that we've just formed a company that has a very clear purpose focused on financial markets and commodity markets to provide data analytics and benchmarks for these types of markets and these types of customers.
That's the kind of parameters that we think about for our business. And as I say, we're looking, but right now, our number one priority when it comes to acquisitions is the integration of S and L.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Are there any further questions today for this meeting? Thank you very much for attending. Seeing that there are no further questions, I will say that this meeting is closed and we appreciate your shareholding, your interest in the company and thank you very much for coming today.