International General Insurance Holdings Ltd.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the International General Insurance Holdings Limited's first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please say no to a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on a touch-tone telephone. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Robin Sitters, Head of Investor Relations. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jamie, and good morning. Welcome to today's conference call. Today we'll be discussing our first quarter 2023 results. You'll have seen our results press release, which we issued after the market closed yesterday. If you'd like a copy of the press release, it's available in the Investors section of our website at www.iginsure.com. We've also posted a supplementary investor presentation, which can be found on our website on the Presentations page in the Investors section. On today's call are Wasif Jobche, Chairman and CEO of IGI, Waleed Jobche, President, and Pervez Rizvi, Chief Financial Officer. Wasif will begin the call with some high-level comments before handing over to Waleed to talk you through the key drivers of our results for the first quarter and also give some insight into current market conditions and our outlook for the remainder of 2023. At that point, we'll open the call up for questions and answers. I'll begin with a customary safe harbor language. Our speakers' remarks today may contain forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words. 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. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. including the risk factors set forth in the company's annual report on Forms 20F for the year ended December 31st, 2022, and the company's reports on Form 6K and other filings with the SEC, as well as our results press release issued yesterday evening. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date they are made. In addition, as you are aware, We voluntarily changed the basis of accounting from IFRS to U.S. GAAP effective January 1st, 2023. During this conference call, we'll use certain non-GAAP financial measures. For reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP measure, please see our earnings release, which has been filed with the SEC and is available on our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to our fourth speaker, Martha Jackson.

Thank you, Robin, and good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. We had a very strong start to 2023 with excellent results across most metrics. We delivered a combined ratio of 78.4% while growing our premiums by more than 37%. With higher yields, and reinvestment rates leading to much improved investment income. We delivered a profit of $33.9 million, representing an increase of more than 52% over the first quarter of 2022. This culminated in a 27.9% annualized core operating return on equity. At March 31, our book value per share was $9.98, representing an increase of 10% from December 31, 2022. Our results in the first quarter clearly demonstrate our consistency in effectively executing our strategy. shifting our focus to those areas of the market with the most profitable opportunities. As we had expected, we are seeing some excellent opportunities in both our short tail and reinsurance segments, which is where you saw the growth in our gross premiums during the first quarter. The operating environment continues to be very healthy. and we expect to continue to show profitable growth in these segments going forward. While taking a more cautious approach to long-tail business where we are seeing increasing pricing pressure, here the landscape has become increasingly competitive with new capacity recently entering these markets. As we add to our short tail and reinsurance business, and these segments become a greater proportion of our total book of business, we will continue to maintain a diversified and balanced portfolio. We're seeing positive momentum in many areas of our business, and we expect this to continue throughout 2023. The market today for IGI is one of the healthiest we have seen in more than a decade. And we are very excited about the opportunities in front of us. We have remained focused and disciplined, which has positioned us very well to be able to anticipate and take advantage of opportunities at the right time. There has been significant increase in the flow of business that we are seeing and that has allowed us to be more selective. While capacity in some areas of the market remains constrained, IGI has the appetite and the ability to deploy our capital in the most attractive lines and markets while remaining within our well-established risk tolerance. This strategy is what drives our long-term track record of generating shareholder value through excellence in underwriting. Now, Waleed can take you through the results for the quarter and provide more details on our outlook for the remainder of 23. Waleed, please go ahead.