Pelagos Insurance Capital Limited

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fidelis Insurance Group's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. Following the conclusion of formal remarks, the management team will host a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. With that, I will now turn the call over to Miranda Hunter, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Hunter, please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to the Fidelis Insurance Group's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. With me today are Dan Burrows, our CEO, and Alan DeClaire, our CFO, and Johnny Strickle, our Chief Actuarial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during the call, including the question and answer session, may include forward-looking statements. These statements are based upon management's current assessments and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and emerging information developing over time. These risks and uncertainties are described in our third quarter earnings press release and our most recent end report on Form 20F filed with the SEC. Both are available on our website at thedellisinsurance.com. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements have a reasonable basis when made, we can give no assurance that these expectations will be achieved. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. For more information, including on the risks and other factors that may affect future performance, investors should review the safe harbor regarding forward-looking statements included in our third quarter earnings press release, available on our website, fidelisinsurance.com, as well as those periodic reports that are filed by us with the SEC from time to time. Management will also make reference to certain non-GAAP measures of financial performance. The reconciliation to U.S. GAAP for each non-GAAP financial measure and our definition of RPI, which is our Renewable Pricing Index, can be found in our current report on Form 6K, furnished with the SEC yesterday, which contains our earnings press release and is available on our website at fidelisinsurance.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dan.

Thank you, Miranda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. As usual, I will make a few comments before handing it over to Alan to go through the quarter in more detail. In the third quarter, we once again demonstrated the strength of our business, our access to alpha underwriters, and the steps we have taken to optimize our risk-adjusted returns through our resilient portfolio. We also continued our track record of disciplined capital management as we strategically executed against our share re-purchase program. Despite an active quarter in terms of global natural catastrophes, we delivered strong quarterly results with robust top line growth and sustained profitable underwriting. Gross premiums written increased by 25% driven by the focused and disciplined execution by our team and the compelling value we offer to the market. Year-to-date, gross premiums written have increased 23%, and for the full year, we remain on course to achieve premium growth of approximately 20%, in line with last year. We continue to benefit from a strong rating environment across our portfolio, with an overall RPI of 112% for the quarter, as we leverage our position as a leader in a verticalized market terms and conditions. This quarter marked our first period of transacting business through the new Lloyd Syndicate 3123, which launched on July 1st. And, as a reminder, we participate through both a direct investment and a variable quota share. The Syndicate is creating new opportunities across all three segments, most notably with InvertSpake. Looking at our segments in more detail, in specialty, gross premiums written increased by 22% for the quarter, with RPIs at 114%, which is driven by our leadership in major lines. Strong retention rate and new business resulted in growth of 35% in property direct and facultative. In marine, we continue to leverage our participation across marine subclasses and lean into areas of opportunity such as new construction. And in aviation, where the market remains competitive, we have maintained our disciplined approach while still taking advantage of opportunities that meet our underwriting criteria and rating hurdles. In bespoke, we expanded our client base and delivered strong gross premium growth, closing a number of transactions in structured credit and political risk. And finally, reinsurance also saw strong growth and gross premiums written, again driven by both expanding existing client relationships and attracting new business. Reinsurance market discipline around rates remained following significant positive adjustments in prior years, with RPIs of 105%. In addition to strong top-line performance, we delivered compelling bottom-line profitability with a combined ratio of 87.4% in the quarter, and year-to-date our combined ratio is 88.6%. Both are within our target of mid to high 80s across the cycle. We also delivered annualized operating ROAE of 16.4%, bringing year-to-date annualized operating ROAE to 13.3%. Finally, active capital management remains a cornerstone of our strategy. While our first priority is to reinvest into the underwriting business, our strong capital position has also allowed us to return excess capital to shareholders. Since we initiated our dividend and share buyback programs at the beginning of this year, we have returned $141 million to shareholders. During the third quarter, we continue to buy back shares including the execution of a privately negotiated transaction with Platinum Ivy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adya, who remains one of our long-standing shareholders. Alan will go into this and our broader capital management strategy in more detail shortly. In summary, I'm very pleased with our third quarter results and the ongoing dedication displayed by our team. I'll now pass it over to Alan to walk through our financial results in more detail.