RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.

Good morning. My name is Chelsea, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Renaissance III Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call-In Webcast. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Instructions will be given at that time. Lastly, if you should need operator assistance, please press star zero. Thank you. And I will now turn the call over to Keith McHugh, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chelsea. Good morning and welcome to Renaissance Re's second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me today to discuss our results are Kevin O'Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Bob Qutub, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. First, some housekeeping matters. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. It's important to note that actual results may differ materially from the expectations shared today. Additional information regarding the factors shaping these outcomes can be found in our SEC filings and in our earnings release. During today's call, we will also present non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations to GAAP metrics, and other information concerning Non-GAAP measures may be found in our earnings release and financial supplement, which are available on our website at renry.com. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin. Kevin?

Thanks, Keith. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining today's call. We are pleased to report that Renry delivered strong second quarter results that combined consistent bottom-line profitability with continued top-line growth. This growth was particularly robust in our property catastrophe business, where we continued to observe significant rate momentum. For the quarter, we reported an annualized operating return on average common equity of 28.8%, even with the dilution from the quarter's equity issuance. On a year-to-date basis, our operating ROE is running at almost 30%. Of course, our most prominent strategic milestone this quarter was the announcement that we are acquiring AIG's treaty reinsurance platform, Validus RE. I will highlight some of the key business reasons we are excited about this transaction. Bob will then cover the financial details, including our recent equity and debt issuances, to help finance the transaction. Beginning with Validus RE, we are very excited to partner with AIG on this win-win transaction. For Renaissance RE, this advances our strategy as a leading P&C reinsurer. We are gaining access to a large, diversified business in a favorable reinsurance market. Validus Re has a great team, and their underwriting portfolio consists of high-quality mix of property, casualty, specialty, and credit lines that closely mirrors our own. We expect the Validus acquisition to be highly accretive across our financial metrics. For a premium overbook value of $885 million, we anticipate receiving a gross written premium base of $3.1 billion in 2022, of which we are targeting at least $2.7 billion of premium, $4.5 billion of investable assets, and a $250 million equity investment by AIG in our common shares, as well as up to $500 million in our capital partner business. At close, we anticipate receiving $2.1 billion of on-leveraged shareholders' equity, which is $1.2 billion lower than Validus REIT's year-end 2022 equity. This reduction is due to the capital efficiency we expect to bring to this business and is part of the reason this transaction is a win-win for both us and AIG. As a result, and as Bob will explain, we believe this transaction will be immediately accretive to each of our three drivers for profit, as well as book value per share, earnings per share, and return on equity, excluding peak app adjustments and integration costs. Of course, there are always risks in any transaction, but we believe we can manage them effectively. To begin with, we are a proven acquirer and have substantial institutional knowledge managing execution and integration risk. The fact that Validus Re underwriting portfolio is similar to our existing book also reduces our execution risk. We have deep familiarity with the lines of business that they write and have the tools necessary to support the business. As a result, we expect that we can fully deploy Validus Re into our portfolio on day one and fully integrate it into our risk management system soon afterwards, diminishing execution risk. The Validus Re portfolio will also benefit from a reserve development agreement. Validus Re is a strong underwriting platform, and AIG should continue to profit from the attractive risk that they have underwritten. As such, AIG will retain 95% of any reserve development, whether favorable or adverse. We expect a valid acquisition to close in Q4 and have already begun comprehensive integration planning. Of course, the closing is subject to regulatory approval, among other customary closing conditions. I am pleased to report that since the announcement of the Validus acquisition and completion of our debt and equity raises, the rating agencies have affirmed our A-plus financial strength ratings. This is a good result, as it is typical for potential acquirers to be placed on negative watch due to execution and integration risk. In conclusion, the acquisition of Validus re-advances our strategy at financial terms that should be immediately agreed. In addition, It extends our relationship with AIG, a key partner. For these reasons, I couldn't be more excited about our future or more convinced that this transaction will drive shareholder value. That concludes my opening comments. I'll provide more detail on our segment performance at the end of the call. But first, Bob will discuss our financial performance for the quarter.