Ambac Financial Group, Inc.

And welcome to the AMBAC Financial Group in Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Score. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Charles Sebesky, Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to AMBAC's fourth quarter 2022 call to discuss financial results. Speaking today will be Claude LeBlanc, President and CEO, and David Trick, Chief Financial Officer. They will discuss the financial results of our business and the current market environment. And after prepared remarks, we'll take your questions. Our call today includes forward-looking statements. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statement involves risks and uncertainties and is not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. These factors are described under the forward-looking statements in our earnings press release and our most recent 10Q and 10K filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. Also, in our prepared remarks or responses to questions, we may mention some non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation to those non-GAAP measures are included in our recent earnings press release, operating supplement, and other materials available in the investor relations section of our website at AMBAC.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Claude LeBlanc.

Thank you, Chuck, and welcome to everyone joining today's call. Yesterday we posted a separate presentation to our website that I will be referencing during today's call entitled 2022 Year-End Review. I'm going to start on slide three of this presentation. 2022 was a transformational year for AMBAC. A year during which we resolved a number of our most significant challenges and At the same time, materially progressed our new business strategy. Today, I am pleased to report that AMBAC is in its strongest financial position since the 2007 financial crisis. In 2022, we successfully resolved all of our remaining legacy RMBS rep and warranty litigations, recovering nearly $2 billion through settlements, and we completed the restructuring of our largest and most distressed financial guarantee exposures, notably our PRIFA CCDA, and HTA, Puerto Rico exposures, amongst others. As a result of these successes, in addition to our active asset liability management activities, which resulted in the capture of over $150 million of discount, we reduced our outstanding debt by $1.8 billion and increased our book value by $214 million, or $5.43 per share. In our specialty P&C businesses, we expanded our platform through both organic growth and acquisitions, producing in excess of $280 million of premiums. Everspan continued to increase its market share, generating gross written premiums of $146 million for the year. In addition, we successfully recruited top industry talent to our businesses, all of which positions Anvac very well for strong future expansion and earnings growth. For the year ending December 31, 2022, AMBAC reported net income of $522 million or $11.31 per diluted share and adjusted earnings of $555 million or $12.01 per diluted share. AMBAC ended the year with a book value of $1.25 billion, an increase of 21%, and adjusted book value of $1.27 billion, an increase of 46%, over year-end 2021. David will discuss our results in more detail shortly. Turning now to the review of our legacy financial guarantee business on slide four of the presentation. Each of AAC and AUK succeeded in materially increasing their book value and adjusted book value and the quality thereof, one of our key strategic priorities. In summarizing some of our key achievements for the year, First, we have monetized all of our outstanding weapon warranty receivables when considering the receipt of the Nemours settlement in January of 2023. Secondly, we reduced our Puerto Rico exposure by 77%. Next, our debt leverage is down 74%. Loss reserves are down 51%. Adverse credit exposure is down 26%. And finally, net par outstanding is down 19%. Over the same period, book value per share increased 24% and adjusted book value per share increased by 50%. Turning to slide five of the presentation. As outlined last quarter, our recent accomplishments coupled with our significant de-risking and de-leveraging activities positions us to begin the process of reevaluating the amount of capital needed to support our legacy businesses, as well as initiate a comprehensive review of the alternative strategic paths available to maximize value. Our strategic review process will evaluate alternative options on both a time and risk adjusted basis. I would also like to point out that certain alternatives are not mutually exclusive and may be considered in connection with others. Options under active consideration include, one, the ongoing active runoff of a profitable, delivered, and de-risked legacy platform, potentially consolidated with AUK. Two, strategic portfolio de-risking transactions with the goal of freeing up capital and further increasing the value of our businesses. Three, strategic joint venture arrangements to generate increased value and financial flexibility at AEC and AFG. And lastly, a full or partial sale of the legacy business, which would consider the value for the well-preserved NOLs held by AEC. As previously mentioned, managing through the operating and capital reevaluation process with our regulator will take some time, but I wanted to offer an update on our progress thus far. Our periodic examination process with our insurance regulators is well underway, and we are working towards establishing a new capital and operating framework with our Wisconsin insurance regulator by the middle of this year. Second, we are working with advisors in both the US and the UK to assist us in the evaluation of strategic options for both AAC and AUK in order to further maximize value creation and recovery for shareholders. The outcome from this analysis, combined with the outcome from the operating and capital framework, in addition to other considerations, is expected to provide us with greater clarity on preferred options and the timing thereof. We will update you further once the review process is complete. Turning now to our specialty P&C business on slide six of the presentation. Everspan Group, our specialty P&C program business, had a great first full year of business generating gross premium written of $146 million, up over tenfold from its launch in May 2021. Everspend continues to expand and diversify its program partners, which currently stand at 14, up from 7 at the start of 2022. The team remains focused on growth with strong underwriting-focused program partners, backed by a leading panel of highly rated reinsurers. The US MGA market remains robust and expanding with an expected range of 70 to 100 billion in premiums, which supports a strong pipeline of new program partners for Everspan. While growth is important, Everspan is a disciplined underwriting platform and selective in its risk assumption. In 2022, Everspan received over 180 submissions, but only contracted with nine that met their desired risk profile. The January 1st reinsurance renewals provided evidence that the disruptive forces within the P&C supply and demand dynamic identified earlier in the year were real, especially as it relates to property cat-exposed business. However, Everspan, which has limited property exposure and program renewals spread throughout the calendar year, has so far been able to successfully mitigate these challenges with the broader industry. And to some degree, we believe that these industry dynamics may well provide Everspan with additional growth opportunities, especially in our preferred classes of business, as competitors work to address the changes in property cap capacity. We expect these factors, along with the strength of Everspan's current programs, to provide the business with the opportunity and resources to keep building on its gross premium growth. This year, we expect Everspan to generate in excess of $250 million of gross premium and reach profitability in the back half of the year, and to continue growing to upwards of $500 million of gross premium over the next several years. Turning to slide 7 in our insurance distribution business, Serata, our insurance distribution segment, had another good year, with premiums placed at $135 million, up 15% over 2021. which generated $7 million of EBITDA. Serata is just getting started, and there is a lot of runway for growth both organically and strategically. Notably, Serata's 2022 performance only includes two months of results from the fourth quarter acquisitions of Altrans and Capacity Marine. Exchange, our first MGA acquisition, has recently announced several growth initiatives that we are very excited about. First, Exchange RE. a reinsurance MGU that will underwrite accident and health reinsurance coverage on a worldwide basis, utilizing U.S. Fire as a carrier. Secondly, Distribution Re, a captive for exchanges employer stop-loss clients that will ensure accident and health risks, mainly in the form of high-deductible medical stop-loss plans, both of which will add to top and bottom-line growth in 2023. As our business continues to transform, we have continued to successfully attract top P&C talent, including the recent hire of a leading industry executive, John Tatum, who is in the process of building out our second de novo incubation, an MGA, in the construction space. These accomplishments, combined with an active M&A pipeline, position Serata favorably to hit projections exceeding $200 million, a place premium with attractive margins for 2023. Lastly, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge Jim Prier, who stepped down from our board after having served as a director for over seven years. The board and management have benefited tremendously from Jim's counsel and service over the years, leading to the significant milestone accomplishments dating back to the segregated accounts exit from rehabilitation in 2018 and through our numerous other achievements culminating to where we are today. On behalf of the board and management, I want to personally thank Jim and wish him the best on his next endeavors. We plan to use Jim's departure as an opportunity to refresh our board. The board routinely reevaluates its composition to ensure the expertise and other qualities of the board as a whole are well-suited to the company's business and strategy. In light of the accomplishments and significant growth in our specialty P&C business, The board's governance and nominating committee is well advanced in its search to add a highly skilled director that brings additional specialty PNC insurance expertise to help Stewart and back in its next phase of growth. We look forward to updating you on that initiative at the appropriate time. I will now turn the call over to David to discuss our financial results for the quarter. David.