Axis Capital Holdings Limited

Good morning and welcome to the Axis Capital first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a 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 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Miranda Hunter, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Chad. Good morning and welcome to the Access Capital first quarter 2023 conference call. Our earnings press release and financial supplement were issued yesterday evening after the market closed. If you would like copies, please visit the investor information section of our website at accesscapital.com. Joining me on today's call are Albert Benchmull, our president and CEO, Vince Tizio, CEO of Specialty Insurance and Reinsurance and our future group CEO effective May 4th, and Pete Boat, our CFO. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that the statements made during this call, including the question and answer section, which are not historical facts, may be forward-looking statements. 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 most recent report on the Form 10-K or quarterly report on the Form 10-Q. 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 issued last night. We undertake no obligations 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. And with that, I turn the call over to Albert.

Thank you, Miranda. Good morning. And thank you for taking the time to join us today. Welcome to our first quarter investor call. As we'll discuss shortly, this was a strong quarter for Axis. And it gives me comfort to hand over the reins after nearly 13 years with the company, feeling very positive about the progress that we've achieved and where the company is today. And I feel even better about its future. Following years of hard work to reposition Axis to be a more focused specialty underwriter, With lower volatility and steady profitable results, we're seeing demonstrable improvements and growing consistency in our performance. This quarter marked yet another period of progress in generating meaningful underwriting income, highlighted by solid results across our core metrics. An all-in combined ratio of 91, operating income of $200 million, and record operating earnings per common diluted share of $2.33. During a quarter where the industry was impacted by heightened cat activity, we demonstrated the resiliency of our portfolio with total cat losses of $38 million, or 3.1 points of cat loss ratio. This compares to our five-year average first quarter cat loss ratio of close to 4.5 points, excluding COVID and the war in Ukraine. Moreover, we achieved robust premium growth across most attractive lines, buoyed by a general resurgence in rate momentum, sustaining profitable pricing. These results speak to the actions that we've taken in recent years to concentrate our resources and capital on growing less volatile and more profitable specialty insurance business, as well as targeted specialist reinsurance lines, building our brand, and investing in attractive growth opportunities. We continue to focus on shifting our portfolio mix, which should be close to 75% specialty insurance and 25% reinsurance this year. Indeed, as Vince will discuss shortly, during the quarter, we continued to see excellent performance within our core specialty insurance segment, and we continued to reshape Axis Re as a specialist reinsurer, riding risks that are accretive to the broader Axis portfolio. Another item that I was pleased to see during the quarter was investment income growth of 47% year over year. our coupon bond income almost doubled over the prior first period, contributing to a healthy bottom line. And as our relatively short bond portfolio matures, we should be able to reinvest the maturity proceeds at a better rate, driving even greater investment income going forward. In short, the totality of our business is moving in the right direction. As we look to the future, access to leadership positions in some of the most attractive markets in the industry We're writing the business that we want to write, and we're very well positioned to drive further profitable growth. In addition, we've been recognized as the best place to work in the industry in both the US and London markets, and I've received a number of recognitions for our commitment and progress in our corporate citizenship and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. These very strong cultural attributes have aided us in attracting and retaining superior talent to our company, And this gives me even more confidence in our team and our future. I do want to be clear. There is still a lot more that we can and must do to realize the company's potential, to grow small account business and drive further growth across all attractive lines, improve our efficiency, and leverage digital and data and analytics to make better decisions faster, all making up the critical steps forward for Axis to realize our ambition of becoming a specialty leader within the industry. And I believe we have the right leader in Vince Tizio to guide us there. In Vince, we have a great leader who has the vision, specialty insurance knowledge, grit, and tenacity to guide our team to build on the strong foundation that is in place and take access to even higher levels of success. It gives me great confidence to know that I'm leaving access in such capable hands. And with that, I'll pass the floor to Vince, who will provide more color on the business, and then we'll go to Pete Vogt, who will review our financial results in detail. after which we'll be very happy to take any questions you might have. Vince?