Axis Capital Holdings Limited

Good day and welcome to the first quarter 2025 Access Capital 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 a touch tone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then too. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Clifford Gallant, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2025 conference call. Our earnings press release and financial supplement were issued last night. If you would 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. Joining me on today's call are Vince Tizio, our President and CEO, and Pete Vogt, our CFO. In addition, I would like to 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 risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ 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 our quarterly report on Form 10-Q and other reports the company files with the SEC. This includes the additional risks identified in the cautionary note regarding the forward-looking statements in our earnings press release issued last night. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. In addition, our non-GAAP financial measures may be discussed during this conference call. Reconciliations are included in our earnings press release and financial supplement. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Vince.

Thank you, Cliff. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. 2025 is off to a strong start for Axis as we continue to build on the positive momentum and bottom line focus that has defined our performance over the past two years. As shared at our investor day a year ago, we have a strategy and portfolio designed to guard against volatility, and seek profitable growth. Even today, as we navigate uncertainty brought on by trade disruption, geopolitical tensions, and market volatility, Axis is well positioned as a specialty underwriter that brings a strong value proposition to its distribution channels. Now, more than ever before, our customers are adapting to a dynamic and highly complex risk environment, and Axis is providing customized and innovative specialty solutions to help them. Our first quarter financial results evidence that we have developed a portfolio that consistently performs, even against outsized catastrophe events and changing risk dynamics. Indeed, across our organization, we continue to act with pace and seize profitable growth opportunities while serving our customers' needs. I'll share some of the headline metrics for this reporting period. In the quarter, we produced an annualized operating return on equity of 19.2% and record diluted book value per common share of 66.48. Operating earnings per share of 317 represent a 23% increase over the prior year quarter and our highest ever quarterly operating earnings per share. An all-in combined ratio of 90.2 delivered in a quarter in which natural catastrophe losses, including wildfires, approximated more than $55 billion. accesses share of the CAAT losses with less than 10 basis points. We generated record premiums of $2.8 billion, representing 5% growth, including $738 million in new premiums. Looking deeper, our insurance premiums grew 8% ex-primary casualty and cyber, lines that we have mentioned as being reshaped during past earnings calls. We remain on track to achieve our GA ratio target of 11% by 2026. We produced net investment income of $208 million, up 24% over the prior year quarter. Enabled by our strong capital position, we opportunistically repurchased $440 million in shares during the quarter. And last week, we closed our previously announced LPT agreement with NSTOR, even further demonstrating confidence in our reserves. Let's now move on to our segment, and we'll begin with insurance. Our insurance segment produced excellent results, generating an overall combined ratio of 86.7, a current accident year XCAT combined ratio of 83.4, $1.7 billion in premiums, up 5% over the prior year quarter, including $547 million in new premiums. I'll add that both our total and new business premiums were our best ever for the first quarter, and our quarterly underwriting income of $135 million is an all-time high for our insurance segment. In North America, we continue to produce high single-digit growth at 9%, coupled with healthy submission flow, which was up 21%, propelled by our E&S lines. We are also seeing increasing contributions from our recently launched new and expanded business units, including Commercial Surety, Environmental, and Ocean Marine, to name just a few. and our dedicated wholesale lower middle market unit grew 41% in the quarter. In our global markets business, which is operating in a competitive market landscape, we drove selective growth in the quarter across targeted classes such as A&H, renewable energy, and marine species. Importantly, this business remains premium adequate, and our team is maintaining underwriting discipline as we cycle manage that business. Let's now move to reinsurance. Actressry performed well in the quarter. In the quarter, the business delivered a 92-3 combined ratio and $1.1 billion in premiums, up about 5%. In the first quarter, we write approximately 45% of our reinsurance business for the year. We continued to pursue growth in our specialty-focused classes and added $191 million in new business, with 48% coming from our short-tail specialty lines. While the overall reinsurance market remains varied by lines, Our focus is on producing consistent, profitable results with low volatility while also leveraging our dual underwriting platform model, seeking profitable growth where we see the best opportunities. Let's now step back and discuss broader market conditions. As I noted at the outset of our call, the current trade and geopolitical environment introduces uncertainty across a number of dimensions, including rising loss costs, potential impacts on economic growth, and the threat of a recessionary environment. At ACCESS, on an ongoing basis, we assess all forms of uncertainty presented, and through our normal underwriting practices, take steps and measures that guard against adverse outcomes. With respect to tariffs in particular, we anticipate that the most immediate impact could be on lost costs. This would be most likely reflected in our first party lines, predominantly property and cargo. Additionally, should the current uncertainty surrounding tariffs persist, we would expect an impact on growth in certain of our lines of business. Nonetheless, we have confidence in our ability to address these factors while leveraging the diversification within our portfolio. That said, our strategy remains firm and contemplates shifting market conditions. We continue to see areas that bring our specialty underwriting capabilities to further serve customer needs globally. Let's unpack this further. Our portfolio is highly premium adequate, and the business being placed on our books is meeting our risk-adjusted long-term expectations. We continue to lean into premium adequate short tail lines where we are seeing attractive performance, which currently comprises 55% of our total gross premiums written. Notwithstanding, competition is increasing in property, And after seven years of rate hardening and strong results, we are pursuing a more selective growth strategy. In the quarter, we evidence a negative 7% rate change with 3% growth across our eight operating divisions that bring property to market. Our portfolio continues to be highly premium adequate, well-constructed, and has an average net limit in the low single-digit millions. And through the quarter, the changes in competition are primarily affecting rate and not terms and conditions. However, in liability, pricing momentum is being sustained at elevated levels, achieving a 13.5% rate increase in the quarter. Going deeper, in U.S. excess casualty, we generated a 16% rate change in the quarter. Further, in primary casualty, rates were up 21% in the quarter. we completed our previously mentioned remediation of primary casualty this quarter. As respects cyber, we've commented previously that we're leveraging our ability to deploy cyber capacity through both our underwriting businesses. In reinsurance, we grew our cyber portfolio by 29% in the quarter. More importantly, we remain confident in our premium adequacy, limit deployment, and accumulation management between both insurance and reinsurance supporting this growth. It's part of the reshaping of our delegated cyber portfolio. We feel good about the progress we're achieving through our partnership with Alpha Secure. This partnership enables access to address the lower middle market segment and enhance our value proposition through the advanced cybersecurity services that are provided. It is worth mentioning that we will continue to remediate our delegated cyber business. We expect that work to be completed by the end of the third quarter, as we continue to reshape approximately $60 million of that business. Finally, our targeted insurance cyber business continues to attract the large account segment, where we continue to see adequate returns against our underwriting appetite. In summary, even amidst uncertainty and continued shifts in the market environment, We are profitably growing our business, and we are deploying our capital into targeted, attractive markets while leaning into our specialty underwriting value proposition with agility. Through our How We Work program, we continue to enhance all aspects of how we operate, and the more than 1% improvement in our GA ratio reported in the quarter is a direct result. However, and importantly, How We Work is not solely about cost elimination. Indeed, we continue to make investments in our technology, and operating platforms while enhancing our underwriting and claims capabilities. By way of example, I'll point to our wholesale lower middle market business, which I referenced earlier. This unit's steady, profitable growth has been propelled by our investments in talent, data, technology, and AI. This is just one of a range of initiatives that we're leading to help build a foundation of future growth for Axis. Stepping back, We continue to execute on our strategy and are advancing the strategic priorities that form our value creation framework, growing our diluted book value per share and producing strong financial results, driving profitable growth in our targeted specialty markets and tapping into new revenue opportunities, optimizing our operating model while enhancing productivity and managing our capital efficiently. Throughout the company, we remain focused on delivering on our stated goals and solving clients' problems, and I thank our Access colleagues worldwide for their continuing outstanding contributions. With that, I'll now pass over to Pete for his financial report.