Canadian Solar Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for standing by, and welcome to Canadian Solar's fourth quarter and four year of 2019 earnings conference call. My name is Anne, and I will be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Ed Job, Managing Director, Investor Relations at Canadian Solar. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Annie, and welcome everyone to Canadian Solar's fourth quarter and full year 2019 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Dr. Sean Chu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Yan Zhuang, Acting Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Huifang Cheng, Chief Financial Officer. On this call, Sean will provide a brief update, followed by Yan, who will review our recent progress and Outlook. Kuifang will then review our financial results before we open the call to your questions. Before we begin, may I remind listeners that management's prepared remarks today, as well as their answers to your questions, will contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Therefore, the company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from management's current expectations. Any projections of the company's future performance represent management estimates. As of today, Canadian Solar assumes no obligation to update its projections in the future unless otherwise required by applicable law. A more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties can be found in the company's annual report on Form 20F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management's prepared remarks will be presented within the bounds of SEC Reg G regarding generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Some financial information presented during the call will be provided on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. By disclosing certain non-GAAP information, management intends to provide investors with additional information to allow further analysis of the company's performance and underlying trends. Management uses non-GAAP measures to better assess operating performance and to establish operational goals. Non-GAAP information should not be viewed by investors as a substitute for data prepared in accordance to GAAP. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Canadian Solar's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Shawn Chi. Shawn, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ed. Welcome, everyone. 2019 was a strong year as our revenue and profit both exceeded expectations. Then we'll go through our business review and outlook in more details. Given the current pandemic and macro situation, I would like to share with you some of my views and perspectives. First of all, we have been working hard to ensure the health and safety of our employees. This is our top priority. We are also taking all the necessary measures to support our customers and partners in the current market environment while still planning for the market to rebound. Today, solar is already one of the most environmental and economically attractive sources of energy. Innovation continues to drive solar energy's competitiveness. As the cost and performance of storage continues to improve, All this ability to gain market share in a global energy generation mix will accelerate. In addition to market forces, global decarbonization efforts are intensifying creating even greater demand for clean energy and solar assets. The current shock resulting from coronavirus will likely interrupt the clean energy transition, but there's no turning back. Canadian solar has a proven track record of 19 years and has established strong foundations to capture an outsized share of the demand growth. We have built a globally diversified and flexible capacity structure, strong customer relationships and Bankability is a resilient business model that adapts to change in the market. Currently, we are also putting in place risk controls to preserve cash and navigate the market volatility. We believe that the robust and conservative nature of a long-term strategy will allow the company to emerge stronger from the current period Thank you, Sean.