Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated

Good day and welcome to the Reinsurance Group of America First Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to introduce Mr. Todd Larson, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Anna Manning, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mr. Larson.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to RGA's first quarter 2022 conference call. With me this morning on the call is Anna Manning, RGA's president and chief executive officer, Leslie Barbee, our chief investment officer, Jonathan Porter, our chief risk officer, and Jeff Hopson, the head of our investor relations. We will discuss the first quarter results after a quick reminder about forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures. Following our prepared remarks, we'll be happy to take your questions. Some of our comments or answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from expected results. Please refer to the earnings release we issued yesterday for a list of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Additionally, during the course of this call, information we provide may include non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our earnings release, earnings presentation, quarterly financial supplement, and website for discussion of these terms and reconciliations to GAAP measures. And now I'll turn the call over to Anna for her comments.

Thank you, Todd. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call this morning. Last night, we reported adjusted operating EPS of 47 cents, which included a COVID-19 impact of $310 million pre-tax, or $3.48 per share. We are encouraged by the results this quarter. as we reported positive operating earnings despite absorbing a meaningful level of COVID-19 claims. There are also many bright spots throughout the business, and I consider this to be a very good start to the year. Before getting into the details of the quarter, I want to emphasize a few key points. Our core business continues to deliver strong underlying results, and that is a testament to the value of our global franchise and is a positive indicator for our future results. We continue to see good new business activity in our markets, both organic new business and through in-force transactions. And that means we've been adding meaningfully to future earnings. And we also see encouraging pipelines in both channels. Now turning to the quarter. COVID-19 claims in the quarter were concentrated in the US, Canada, and the UK. Jonathan will provide further insights on our global COVID-19 claims shortly. Our Asia traditional business had a very strong quarter reflecting favorable underwriting results even after absorbing a moderate amount of COVID-19 claims. Our GFS business continues to excel and produce results that were above our expectations led by the EMEA region this quarter. Our U.S. group and U.S. individual health business again reported strong results, continuing the trend of very good performance. The Australia traditional business reported a profit, the best result in quite a while, and it was profitable across both group and individual businesses. We remain cautiously optimistic about the Australia business and the ongoing market developments as the industry starts to move toward more sustainable conditions. Our investment results were favorable, and the rise in interest rates and new money rates if sustained would be a positive tailwind going forward. Capital deployed into Inforce and other transactions was $130 million in the quarter, a nice start for the year, and as already mentioned, the pipelines remain active and broad-based across risks and geographies. A factor in our long-term success in in-force transactions is having deep local market expertise combined with long and well-established local client relationships. That is having strong local operations. That strategy and positioning has been paying off and is further evident this quarter in Asia, where we deployed a large part of the $130 million of capital into transactions. Our reported premium growth was a strong 8.3%, and that is while some countries are still facing some level of pandemic restrictions. We continue to see good momentum in new business going forward with favorable dynamics for insurance products in many of our traditional markets and strong demand from clients for our reinsurance solutions. I'm also proud to announce that for the 11th consecutive year, RGA was ranked number one for global business capabilities by NMG in their 2021 Global Life and Health Reinsurance Report. Leveraging our leading capabilities and being a trusted partner, as well as a thought leader, has allowed us to deliver value to our clients throughout the years, a point of personal pride in this organization and a tribute to our employees and our culture of client centricity. Looking ahead, I see many reasons to be optimistic. First, although uncertainty remains, evidence shows that COVID-19 deaths are declining in many countries. Second, our value proposition and client partnerships have been strengthened throughout the last two years, and our new business success has added material long-term earnings. And third, our global platform, depth of technical expertise, strength of capabilities, and value of client partnerships differentiates us and positions us extremely well to capitalize on the many attractive growth opportunities as we move forward. Thank you for your interest in RGA, and I hope you all remain safe and well. Let me now turn it over to Todd to go over the detailed financial results.