Global Indemnity Group, LLC

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Global Indemnity Group first quarter 2026 earnings call. My name is Angela and I will be your conference operator today. I'd like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and that all lines have been placed 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, follow video number one in your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Evan Kasowitz, Chief Operating Officer of Global Indemnity Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Today's conference call is being recorded. GBLI's 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, believes, expectations, or estimates. We caution you that such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation 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 the 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 is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Jay Brown, Chief Executive of Global Indemnity.

Thank you, Evan. Good morning and thanks for joining us for GBLI's first quarter 2026 results conference call. Joining me today are Evan Kazowitz, Chief Operating Officer of GBLI and President of Belmont Holdings, and Brian Riley, GBLI's Chief Financial Officer. As usual, I'll start with a quick overview of the quarter, what stood out in the results, and what we're seeing in our longer-term trends. Then Brian will walk through the key financial and operating highlights. After that, we'll open it up for your questions. It's always nice to report solid first quarter results in the spring, especially in a year without a major catastrophe loss. I would add it's also nice to have a very clean and straightforward story this quarter. Essentially, what you see is what you get. This quarter, our underlying insurance operating trends stayed very strong and consistent with what we've delivered over the last four years. Our accident quarter combined ratio was 94.9%, producing an underwriting profit of $5.5 million. That quarterly underwriting result is in line with what you've seen from us over each of the past 12 quarters. with the exception of the California wildfire a year ago. If you exclude the wildfire, the year-over-year comparison is essentially unchanged, 94.9% this year versus 94.8% in the first quarter of last year. On investments, our short-duration bond portfolio generated $14.5 million of net investment income. We also recorded a short-term market value loss of 2.3 million from a small investment partnership. Altogether, that produced total net investment income of 12.2 million, down from 14.8 million in the prior year quarter. Brian will go into more detail on the portfolio, but I'll just add this. We are still positioned very defensively. with an extremely short duration, about one year, comprised of very high quality fixed income holdings. In today's uncertain global economic environment, I'm comfortable with that posture and will be ready to redeploy into a more attractive long-term portfolio when conditions settle down. The other environmental dynamic emerging this quarter is the drop in available business in the overall E&S market. This presents additional challenge for growth in a market that is flat or shrinking. As we noted in the press release, overall reported premium growth was essentially flat versus the first quarter of last year. The main driver was wholesale commercial, where premiums declined by 3.4 million, from 64.9 million to 61.5 million, down 5.2%. This decline offset the growth we saw in vacant, collectibles, assumed reinsurance, now newly branded as Valiant RE, and specialty products. As I mentioned last quarter, the wholesale commercial results were driven by a clear shift in pricing competition in the ENS wholesale space, both from our ENS peers and from the admitted market reentering the property segments in a significant way. Given where we play at the very small end of the wholesale commercial market, the crossover competition from the admitted market comes into play very quickly as the market turns. Reflecting on the past several quarters, While underwriting and pricing discipline remain my absolute priority, it's clear we didn't react fast enough to increase competition, particularly in the property segments where our loss results have been outstanding. I am encouraged that our wholesale commercial month-over-month written premium comparisons have improved through the first four months of the year, with April now flat against last year. A few comments on our Kaleidoscope technology platform. Because our last call was less than two months ago, there isn't a major update on our investment. The good news is that the core cloud-based full cycle policy administration platform development is now virtually complete. And most of the remaining work has shifted to bringing wholesale commercial, vacant, and collectibles onto the platform. As we noted last quarter, we remain confident that all three existing direct product groups will be fully integrated and operating by year end. And just as importantly, we'll be ready to extend this same platform to the new product chains we've begun recruiting. After three years of significant IT investment and a renewed focus on our long-term core business, It can be easy to lose sight of how far we've come, but our unrelenting commitment to underwriting excellence has produced an exceptionally attractive book of in-force business. As the year progresses, we expect the business rationale for our organizational realignment last year and the three-year digital transformation to continue to have a clear driving impact on our results. Stepping back, we remain satisfied with the solid underlying profitability of the business, driven by excellent loss results, although expenses are still running roughly four points above our long-term targets. Optimizing our operational structure to leverage the technology investment of the last few years, combined with the ability to rapidly expand our product offerings will be the major tactical objective over the next seven quarters. Looking ahead, based on the work we've done to improve the delivery of our products, coupled with the discipline to shed business that didn't meet our underwriting criteria, we continue to feel strongly that despite how we started the year, Belmont core gross premium should grow in the 15 to 20 percent range for the full year 2026 Let me repeat that we do expect growth in the 15 to 20 percent level by the time we reach here in Finally in Closing I'll reiterate a point that I've made in the past. I have a high level of conviction in the quality of our core business and and I'm confident we're well-positioned to continue delivering substantial value to our owners. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian.