HCI Group, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to HCI Group's second quarter 2021 earnings call. My name is Matthew and I'll be your conference operator this afternoon. At this time, all participants will be on a listen-only mode. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay through September 5th, 2021, starting later this evening. The call is also being broadcast live via webcast and available via webcast replay until August 5th, 2022 on the investor information section of HCI Group's website at www.hcigroup.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Rachel Swansinger, investor relations for HCI. Rachel, please proceed.

Thank you and good afternoon. Welcome to HCI Group's first quarter 2021 earnings call. With me on today's call is Karen Coleman, our Chief Operating Officer, Mark Harmsworth, our Chief Financial Officer, and Parish Patel, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Following Karen's opening remarks, Mark will review our financial performance for the second quarter of 2021 and then Parish will provide an operational outlook and then we will take your questions. To access today's webcast, please visit the Investor Information section of our corporate website at www.hcigroup.com. Before we begin, I would like to take the opportunity to remind our listeners that today's presentation and responses to questions may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as anticipate, estimate, expect, intend, plan, and project and other similar words and expressions are intended to signify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and conditions, but rather are subject to various risks and insurgencies. Some of these risks and insurgencies are identified in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should any risks or insurgencies develop into actual events, these developments could have material adverse effects on the company's business, financial conditions, and results of operations. HCI Group disclaims all the obligations to update any forward-looking statements. Now with that, I would like to turn the call over to Karen Coleman, our Chief Operating Officer. Karen? Thank you, Rachel, and welcome, everyone.

It has been another productive quarter for HCI as we continue to execute on our strategic goals and position the company for long-term success. The second quarter was marked by several notable events. In June, we paid a $0.40 per share dividend, our 43rd consecutive quarterly dividend. At the insurance division, consolidated annualized gross premiums is approaching $600 million. We successfully restructured our reinsurance program by purchasing four separate reinsurance towers to reflect the operational separation of the two insurance companies with total costs within our expectations. Details were covered in our July 19th Form 8-K. We benefited from strong support by our long-standing reinsurance partners, as well as participation from new reinsurance capacities. In connection with our ongoing transaction with United Property and Casualty Insurance Company, HCI entered into a new quota share reinsurance agreement in June. As part of the transition of policy from UPC to HCI, we have agreed to provide 100% quota share reinsurance on all of UPC's in-force new and renewal policies for four Northeast states. Under the new agreement, each of our insurance subsidiaries takes 50% of the quota share business. We're close to finalizing all of the regulatory approvals to transact business in those four states, which also includes approvals of the transition of UPC policies to us. On our last call, we stated that TIFTAP was on track to reach its goal of $200 million by year end. Well, because of its growth in addition of UPC business, TITFAP has reached its goal well ahead of schedule by surpassing $200 million at the end of the second quarter. Also, the Florida Legislature recently passed Senate Bill 76 with intent to curb claims and litigation abuses. In a lead up to the July 1st effective date of the law, similar to our peers, we did see an increase in litigation filings. However, post-July 1st, we expect an improvement in litigation trends. After quarter's end on July 7th, Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall in a sparsely populated region of West Central Florida. Overall, we don't see Elsa as a significant event. At the Real Estate Division, Greenleaf Capital, we continue to be pleased with our performance. All of our operating properties are generating a profit. We've had tremendous success creating shareholder value through these real estate investments. As a reminder, last year we sold one of our properties for a gain of $37 million, And even with that sale, we still have over $30 million of unrealized gains in the real estate portfolio. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mark to discuss our financial results for the second quarter and first six months of 2021. Mark?

Thanks, Karen. This was another strong quarter for us as we continue to build the business and invest in the future while maintaining profitability, cash flow, surplus, and liquidity positions. As we showed in the press release, diluted earnings per share were 24 cents. This includes the impact of the preferred shares issued to Centerbridge, which I'll touch on again in a minute. Growth premiums earned this quarter were a record high. Earned premiums grew by about 29% from the same quarter last year, and year-to-date are up 35%. We are driving growth on two fronts. First, we're using our strong surplus and capital positions to realize on strategic opportunities, like the one with UPC, transitioning policies from their Northeast business into our book. Second, we are continuing to drive voluntary growth through our technology-enabled platform, TipTap, which has experienced tremendous growth since inception. As of June 30th, our consolidated annual run rate for premiums is about $585 million, which is up 60% from the end of 2019. We recently issued a press release showing our new reinsurance program. Net premiums seated are expected to be about $207 million for the 12 months beginning June 1st, 2021. The increase from the previous contract year is driven by growth in both of our underwriters, TipTap and Homeowners Choice. Our results in Q2 reflect three months under the old reinsurance program and one month under the new. For the second half of the year, we expect premiums seated to be around 37%, which is three to four points lower than the second half of last year. Looking at the results this quarter, you'll notice that loss expenses are up from the second quarter of last year. This increase is a function of growth and product mix. The consolidated loss ratio of 40% is a little higher than the 37% from the second quarter of last year, as growth is coming from products with slightly higher loss ratios than the traditional homeowner's choice business. Having said that, everything is performing as expected. We continue to build reserves by expensing more than we are paying out. Net reserves are up $14 million so far this year. Policy acquisition expenses are also up significantly over the same period last year, and again, this is related to premium growth and product mix. The consolidated rate of about 16% is higher than the second quarter of last year, as premium growth is coming from TipTap and the Northeast business, which both come with higher commissions. I wanted to make a few comments on cash flow and liquidity. Consolidated cash is up $195 million so far this year. About half of that is from the capital raise to support the growth in TipTap. but also cash flow from operations remains very strong. In the first six months of the year, cash flow from operations was over $95 million. At the holding company level, we have just over $55 million in cash and liquid investments and full access to the $65 million available on the credit line with Fifth Third. As you know, in February, we raised capital from Centerbridge in the form of preferred shares. Because of the way preferred shares are accounted for, while they're outstanding, they reduce earnings per share by about 25 to 30 cents per quarter. The details of that calculation are included in today's press release. However, since we don't consider the preferred shares to be a permanent part of our capital structure, we consider this a temporary impact. Just one more thing. I mentioned on the last earnings call that we have reorganized our segmented reporting, so you can see the results of operations for each of our insurance operations. as well as our real estate and corporate segment. This gives readers a better view into the way that we look at the business. Wrapping up, the company continues to grow. We are investing in the future. Both cash and capital positions are strong at the insurance company and holding company levels. And with that, I will hand it over to Parrish.

Thanks, Mark. In previous earnings calls, we had predicted that TipTap's in-force premiums would reach $50 million by the year end of 2019. And obviously, we exceeded that. Then we told you that TipTap would be a $100 million company before the end of the year 2020, and we exceeded that. Finally, we said TipTap would reach the $200 million mark by the end of 2021. As Karen mentioned, annualized premium has already reached $200 million several months ahead of schedule. Also, this time last year, we laid out a strategic plan, and we thought it would be helpful to summarize where we stand today. First, we disclosed plans to expand TIPTAP out of Florida, and we have achieved that. Currently, TIPTAP is actively riding in five states outside of Florida, and it's secured licenses in a total of 15 states outside the state of Florida. A year ago, we told you about plans to reorganize our corporate structure and create a separate management team for TIC-TAC. We have also achieved that. Late last year, we reorganized and created the TIC-TAC Insurance Group, which now has a separate workforce, separate management team, separate board of directors, and a separate financial reporting structure. And as an example of the build-out of the TIC-TAC management team, Ankur Bhandari recently joined the company as Chief Financial Officer, CFO. Prior to joining the company, Ankur was CFO of Bold Solutions. We are excited to have Ankur join our team as we think his background in technology and insurance will be invaluable to TipTap going forward. Furthermore, Suela Bolko, who has been with HCI for over 10 years, has moved to TipTap as a Senior Financial Officer. Also in the second quarter, we added a new head of investor relations for TipTap, Bill Bromo, who has joined from Dowling and Partners. And thirdly, we had said a year ago that we were disclosing plans to explore strategic alternatives, including securing outside investors to support our growth ambitions for TipTap. And obviously, we achieved that several months ago. As we discussed in our prior calls in February of this year, we secured $100 million of equity capital for Center Bridge Partners. All of that recap brings us to today. Just prior to this call, we announced that TipTap Insurance Group submitted a Form S-1 Draft Registration Statement confidentially with the SEC relating to a proposed initial public offering of TipTap's common stock. As many of you can appreciate, Our comments going forward on this filing will be limited, but we are announcing the filing. To wrap up, we have always run the company with a long-term strategy in mind and have tried to be transparent and communicative with our shareholders. And as my earlier comments show, we have a track record of executing on our plans and we continue to look forward on continuing on that path. With that, we're now ready to open the call for questions. Operator, can you please provide the appropriate instructions?

Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time. We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you're listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone. Please hold while you poll for questions. And our first question is coming from Matt Carletti of JMP Securities. Please proceed.

Thanks. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Matt.

I'm hoping to ask you a few questions on TipTap, some numbers questions. Obviously, getting the $200 million run rate is a great accomplishment. Congrats. What was the gross written in the quarter? And to the extent you can say anything about your expectations for the back part of the year, that would be helpful. I know you've said in the past, I think, that you – a little more cautious around win season, but any update you can provide would be helpful.

So, hey Matt, it's Mark. So, gross written premium for TipTap in Q2 was $60.7 million. Great.

All right, anything you can add about kind of going forward or rather let that lie?

Matt, I think as was stated in the opening comments, TipTap ends up with about $60 million of business from the UPC transaction. There's about $150 million of organic growth that TipTap has already achieved, hence over the $200 million. I think as you play out the rest of the year, we expect that $150 million direct tuition business to increase dramatically as we get into the fourth quarter. So we're expecting, at this point, TIPCAP obviously to be well north of $200 million by the end of the year.

That's great. And then, I mean, obviously the other issue, I think, in SureTech broadly, and it actually came up on another company's call today, centers around kind of cash flow profitability broadly. Can you share what cash flows look like at TipTap, whether second quarter, year-to-date? Just kind of give us a picture of how that stands.

Yeah, Matt, it's Mark. So I mentioned consolidated year-to-date cash flow from operations, which obviously is good, and also positive in TipTap as well. For TTIG consolidated, I think... Cash flow from operations was about $28 million for the first six months of the year.

Positive. Excellent. And then could you talk a little broadly about expenses? The number in the quarter looked actually really good. But you mentioned Encore and Bill, and if you look on LinkedIn or other places, it's clear that you guys are growing rapidly as you look to scale, tip-tap. What should we expect going forward in terms of investments to build the business?

Yeah, I mean, if you look at labor expenses and operating expenses, they're up a little bit quarter over quarter. We've got some increases in salaries. We've got some increases in stock-based compensation, and you can see those increases in there. You know, in terms of guidance, you know, going forward, I don't think we could give that. But, you know, it's really just increases in labor and operating expenses similar to what you saw in the second quarter.

Yeah, Matt, a different way of saying what Mark just also said. We're clearly investing. in the opportunity that TipTap is, and it'll pay off in the long term, it always has, yeah? But in the short term, all the individuals mentioned above, I think, are a fantastic investment and asset to the company, not an expense. Yep.

Yep. A couple of numbers, questions, Mark, and then I'll get out of the way. Do you have net written premiums for the whole company, HCI, and then do you have the tip-tap surplus number at 630?

Yeah, so net premiums written for the quarter, Matt?

Yeah, quarter would be great.

Yeah, it was $138.5 million consolidated, and tip-tap surplus is about $44.5 million at the end of June.

Great. Thank you for all the color and congrats on all the success.

Thanks, Matt. Thanks. Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time. Please hold while we poll for questions. Our next question will come from Mark Hughes of Truist Securities. Please proceed.

Yeah, thank you. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mark.

Could you talk about the loss ratio in the quarter? Just maybe even roughly disaggregate what was the UPC impact, the growth? I think you're reserving more conservatively on those newer policies. How much might have been the underlying loss trends? Would be curious to get some thoughts on that and then how you see that playing out? What's the progression? You know, what's the time period as you, I think re underwrite the book, uh, raise prices, et cetera.

Uh, yeah. Uh, Mark, it's Mark. Um, so, so sort of starting big picture, if you look at the movement in, uh, the loss expense from the second quarter of last year to the second quarter of this year, you know, premiums are up, gross premiums earned are up about $32 million, and the loss expense is up about $16 million. So that incremental loss ratio is about 50%, which makes sense if you think about that. The bulk of the growth is coming from the TipTap homeowner's product, which we talked about it before, but we're reserving it about 45% for that. And the rest of the growth came from the UPC Northeast business, which were reserving at about 53%, 54%. So the growth is coming from a product that has a 45% loss ratio and a product that has, call it a 55% loss ratio. So a 50% incremental loss ratio just sort of makes sense. And that's kind of what I meant in my prepared comments when I said that it was basically growth and product mix. So nothing really unusual going on there. If you look at it, I think the consolidated loss ratio for the quarter was about 40%, maybe 40.1%. If you look forward to the rest of the year, absent any cats, you would expect that consolidated loss ratio to be a little bit less than that. Second quarter is generally Generally, a little bit higher loss ratio than the third and fourth quarters because you always get some weather in the second quarter. We had some weather in April. So you'd expect that consolidated loss ratio to be a few points lower for the rest of the year, absent anything unusual. And then if you want to further break it down by line, I can go through that, but that might be a little bit more detailed than you're after. But I think that's sort of the big picture. You know, the most important thing is the tip-tap loss ratio with the homeowner's product around 45, UPC around 53, and homeowner's choice in that 25% range. A little bit higher than that in the second quarter because of weather, but that's sort of your expected loss ratio. So does that help?

Yeah, that's super detailed. Appreciate that. When we think about next year, will the UPC be lower?

Let me take that one, Mark. We obviously would like to think it would be, but there's so many transitions that that book is about to go through that I think we would keep the number the same until we have compelling evidence to make it different.

Okay. Fair enough. And then what's your latest view on the legislative changes You alluded to the fact that they kicked in here recently. What's your latest view on how much impact those might have?

It's a little bit early for us to be able to tell. Obviously, we know what the legislature's intent was and we're looking forward to that intent to come forward. We did pull some of the July numbers. from the pre-suit demand plus the actual suit served, and currently they appear to be down about 50% from July of 2020, keeping in mind the Senate Bill 76 deals with, doesn't include the AOB suit, so we're just talking about the other suits that are coming in. So, I mean, we're cautiously optimistic, but still too early to tell.

Yeah, okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mark.

Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue at this time. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time. Please hold while we poll for questions.

At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. On behalf of the entire management team, I would like to thank our shareholders, employees, agents, and most importantly, our policyholders for their continued support. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the near future.

Thank you for joining us today on our presentation. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.