Global Indemnity Group, LLC

on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. We will also be taking web questions. If you would like to submit a question, use the Q&A button located at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Stephen Reese, Head of Investor Relations. Stephen, you may begin.

Thank you, Krista. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded, as some remarks may contain forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words, including without limitation, beliefs, expectations, or estimates. we caution you that such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as representations by us that the future plans, estimates, or expectations contemplated by us will in fact be achieved. Please refer to our annual report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC for descriptions of the business environment in which we operate and important factors that may materially affect our results. Global Indemnity Group LLC is not under any obligation and expressly disclaims any such obligation to update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Jay Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Global Indemnity.

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us for the GBLI mid-year update on financial and operational results. Following our usual format, I will first provide a few overview comments and then our Chief Financial Officer, Brian Riley, will review the financial highlights for our insurance operations. Halfway through the year, our team continues to achieve results that are consistent with our plan for 2024 and tracking towards the long-term metrics we established last year. They remain, first, growing our business at around 10% per annum. Second, achieving a combined ratio in the low 90s. And third, manage our insurance expenses to a competitive level of 36 to 37%. While the exits from certain business segments that we engineered 18 months ago are no longer having a material effect on this year's financial results. As Brian will note later, they do have a significant effect when you compare this year's results to last year. In terms of revenues, as noted in our press release, most of our insurance divisions are tracking against long-term double-digit growth. We expect that the combination of Pan America wholesale commercial insure tech, and assumed reinsurance will be close to this target at year end after recording a 9% increase through the first six months of 2024. However, the expansion of our program division is still a work in progress and will continue to lag a bit in 2024 with revenue growth flat through six months, excluding terminated 2023 programs. Brian will provide a more detailed breakdown of revenue growth in a few moments. Turning to underwriting performance, I was very pleased to record a six-month combined ratio of 94.8 for the PEN America segment. In line with our first quarter, this performance was again driven by a continuation of achievement of solid casualty loss ratios and another good quarter for property loss ratios. Despite the industry again seeing catastrophic losses, our six-month property catastrophic losses dropped by 35 percent from last year. Similar to the level we saw in the first quarter, we continue to record a higher than target expense ratio of 38.6. As I noted last quarter, we have kept our internal dollar costs in check since last year after the dramatic drop in premium from 2022. And it will take another couple of years for us to start hitting our long-term targets for expense ratio. This reflects a conscious decision to keep our 2024 PEN America staff levels at the same level as last year after the substantial reduction of premium from 22. in order to continue to meet the service needs of our customers. We are also investing heavily in a full digital transformation of our existing technology infrastructure to stay competitive in the markets we serve. The first couple releases of our new modular transaction cloud-based infrastructure will go into production for our wholesale commercial binding business agent partners in the second half of this year, supporting our excess liability and special event products. The remaining of our commercial wholesale products will be added next year. We continue to achieve rate increases that are modestly in excess of our assessment of underlying inflation trends. While the market is still somewhat hard in the markets we serve, There is no question that the level of rate increases that are now being achieved is tempered from what we saw in the past few years. However, this should allow us to support the consistent long-term loss ratio results we are currently achieving and have experienced historically. We also continue to deliver favorable investment returns following the repositioning of our investment portfolio to take advantage of the dramatic increase that has taken place in short-term interest rates over the past 27 months. Book yields on our portfolio have continued to increase since the beginning of the year and now sit at 4.5%. Given that the duration of our portfolio is now at just 1.0 years, we remain well positioned to redeploy our cash flow and maturities into longer-dated, higher-yielding investments as we get past the election and enter 2025. As we look ahead, we continue to expect an increase in our excess capital from an extraordinarily strong position. As I am constantly reminded, excess capital is always in the eyes of the beholder. That said, we were very pleased to have AM Best affirm our A rating And note that our balance sheet strength was again rated at best strongest level. Overall, I am very pleased with the improved results. My colleagues have recorded for the first six months of 2024 and will now turn it over to Brian to provide a more detailed review of the numbers.