Kinsale Capital Group, Inc.

listed in the company's various SEC filings, including the 2024 annual report on Form 10-K, which should be reviewed carefully. The company has furnished a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission that contains the press release announcing its first quarter results. Kin Sales Management may also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures in the call today. A reconciliation of GAAP to these measures can be found in the press release, which is available at the company's websites. at www.kinsalecapitalgroup.com. I will now turn the conference over to Kinsale's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Michael Kehoe. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Brian Petrucelli, our CFO, and Brian Haney, our President and COO, are both joining me this morning for the call. We will each make a few comments and then take any questions you may have. In the first quarter of 2025, Kinsale's operating earnings per share increased by 6% and gross written premium grew by 8% over the first quarter of 2024. For the quarter, the company posted a combined ratio of 82% and an annualized operating return on equity of 22.5%. These results reflect strong profitability in our business generated from our disciplined underwriting and low-cost model, even with a significant catastrophe event occurring in the quarter. The Palisades wildfire loss that we estimated in February at 45 million is now estimated to be about 41 million gross and 22 million net of reinsurance. All these numbers are pre-tax. As a reminder, Kinsale has a considerable presence in the natural catastrophe market, but we operate with a conservative risk management approach to balance the margin in the business with its inherent volatility. We use a disciplined underwriting model, a robust reinsurance program, regular CAD modeling, and strict limits on concentration of business to limit the volatility of our financial results. We view the outcome of the Palisades wildfire as consistent with this strategy. Growth in premium in the quarter was 8%, slightly below our expectations of 10% to 20% across the cycle. This growth rate was mostly driven by the 18% decrease in our commercial property division, which was our largest underwriting unit last year. Note this underwriting division grew 20-fold over the prior five years. and has produced compelling profits, but now we are seeing more intense competition, including from some standard companies, and rate declines from the peak of about 20%. The margins in this business are still strong, but we do expect to write less premium compared to the prior year for the near term. If you exclude the commercial property division from the calculation, can sales direct written premium for the quarter group by 16.7%. Also, since the commercial property division premium in 2024 is disproportionately concentrated in the first half of the calendar year, we expect this to be a headwind to overall growth in the second quarter as well, but less so in the second half of 2025. It's also worth mentioning that our personal lines and small commercial property teams continue to grow at double digit rates. Overall, the ENS market in the first quarter remained steady, but with a continued increase in competition. And with that, I'm going to turn the call over to Brian Petrucelli.

Thanks, Mike. Another nice quarter with net operating earnings increasing by 6%, even with the impact of the California wildfires. The 82.1% combined ratio for the quarter included 3.9 points from net favorable prior year loss reserve development, compared to 2.7 points last year, with six points in CAT losses this year, primarily again from the California wildfires, compared to less than a half point in the first quarter last year. We produced a 20% expense ratio in the first quarter, and comparable to the 20.7% last year. As we've noted in previous quarters, the expense ratio will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, and we'll just continue to point you to the full year expense ratio as a good measure. On the investment side, net investment income increased by 33.1% this quarter over last year as a result of continued growth in the investment portfolio generated from strong operating cash flows. The annualized gross return was 4.3% and consistent with last year. New money yields continue to average in the low 5% range with book yields around 4.5%, so we should see some continued investment income benefit from these higher rates as we move forward. Diluted operating earnings per share continues to improve and was $3.71 per share for the quarter, compared to $3.50 per share for the first quarter of 2024. As respects to capital management, we repurchased $10 million in shares during the first quarter. I would expect similar modest levels of repurchases each quarter on a routine basis with larger purchases made opportunistically from time to time. With that, I'll pass it over to Brian Haney.