Axis Capital Holdings Limited

Good morning and welcome to the Access Capital second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal 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 then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mei Zhang, Interim Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm happy to welcome you to our conference call to discuss the financial results for Axis Capital for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022. Our earnings press release and financial supplement were issued last night after the market closed. If you like copies, please visit the Investor Information section of our website at accesscapital.com. We set aside an hour for today's call, which is also available as an audio webcast on our website. With me today are Albert Benchimol, our President and CEO, and Pete Vogt, our CFO. Before I turn the call over to Albert, I would remind everyone that the statements made during this call, including the question and answer session, which are not historical facts, may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risk, 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 a company's most recent report on Form 10-K and other reports the company files with the SEC. This includes the additional risks identified in the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements in our earnings press release issue last night. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. In addition, this presentation may contain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations are included in our earnings press release and financial supplement. Now, with that, I'll turn the call over to Albert. Albert?

Thanks, May. And good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call. We delivered another strong quarter of operating performance, reaffirming the sustainability of the improvements we've made over the last few years. We continued our trend of year-over-year improvements in core underwriting metrics as we have advanced our strategy to grow Axis as a specialty underwriting leader that's recognized for the value and high level of service we provide to our customers. The second quarter was highlighted by a consolidated XCAT combined ratio of 88.4, an all-in combined ratio of 93.4, and an operating ROE of 13.7 percent. Our industry will always have some volatility within quarters. Therefore, it's instructive to look beyond just one quarter, and our year-to-date results are very strong. Record second quarter production contributed to all-time high mid-year production figures. half-year gross and net written premiums, and net premiums earned are all at record levels. And on a year-to-date basis, we delivered a consolidated XCAT current accident-year combined ratio of 87.8, excuse me, an all-in reported combined ratio of 92.4, and overall operating ROE of 14.6%. Further illustrating our progress over the past six months, our underwriting income of $255 million is up 36% over the prior year, and our six-month operating income of $329 million is up 30% over 2021. We believe these performance metrics attest to the solid progress we're making to shift to a more stable portfolio, especially when considering the headwinds created by our ongoing mix shifts which impacted our ex-CAT loss ratios by a point. As we'll discuss further on this call, we're confident that the actions we're taking to position Axis for an even stronger future will deliver better and less volatile all-in combined ratios. To illustrate, our average market share of CAT losses over the prior five years was about 0.5%, and in 2022, we're at less than half of that. and we expect more progress as we run up the reinsurance catastrophe exposures over the next few quarters. Our specialty insurance businesses continue to produce impressive results that increasingly put us among the best in the industry. During the second quarter, we delivered robust 16 percent growth in our gross written premiums, 22 percent growth in net written premiums, and an 87.8 all-in combined ratio in a market that continues to offer attractive opportunities. And with leadership positions in strong wholesale and ENS markets, we're well positioned to build on that growth. These improved results are the product of a disciplined and concerted multi-year effort to enhance our leadership in specialty lines markets and shift our book of business towards profitable specialty risks that provide attractive risk-adjusted returns I do apologize, and lower overall volatility, a commitment that continued into this quarter. During the quarter, we announced bold moves to further advance our strategy. Among them was the exit from reinsurance property and catastrophe lines. We also reorganized our businesses under a single front and organization led by Vince Tizio, with an aligned underwriting support and analytics tower to be headed by a group COO. Let me address these moves in further detail. First, we completed a shift of accessory to a specialist reinsurer with a commitment to profitable casualty, specialty, accident and health, and credit lines. And this aligns with our overarching goal of being a leading specialty underwriter. We find that reinsurance remains an attractive channel to access specialty risks that we can't easily obtain through our insurance business. It provides additional scale, balance, and geographical diversification to our consolidated portfolio, and we're very good at it. Our clients and brokers appreciate the value that we bring to their businesses. On the other hand, we do not believe that the access we are building is the best market for volatile property and catastrophe reinsurance lines. We felt it best to be clear with our broker partners and customers as to the sustainable long-term risk appetite of our business. To be clear, our exit from catastrophe reinsurance is not a view on the catastrophe business within the broader industry. Indeed, we expect that this line will continue to improve at the January 1 renewals. Rather, this is a strategic decision to advance our progress towards the company we choose to be, a leader in specialty underwriting, with a strong and consistent earnings profile. We also believe that combining all our front-end business capabilities under one leader and all our underwriting support and analytics under a CUO will increase our efficiency and agility in speed to market and responding to our customers' needs. Before I pass the call on to Peter to get to the specifics of the financial results, I just want to speak to the importance of our team and our culture in achieving the progress we've reported over the last few years and intend on sustaining into the future. Specialty business is all about talent, and we believe we've done a good job of attracting and retaining a great talent and cultivating a strong internal culture. We're committed to growing our people and are proud of our consistently strong engagement scores, which are supported by external validations, such as our recent inclusion on the Forbes list of best midsize employers in the US. We believe that our team and our culture present a sustainable competitive advantage as we look to do even more with our customers and partners in distribution and realize our potential as a leading specialty underwriter. And with that, I'll pass the call to Peter, and then return to go over our traditional review of market conditions. Pete?