RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.

Good morning. My name is Angela, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Renaissance III fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call and 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. I will now turn the call over to Keith McHugh, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Angela. Good morning and welcome to Renaissance Re's fourth quarter and year-end 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me today to discuss our results are Kevin O'Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Cutub, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and David Mara, Executive Vice President and Group Chief Underwriting Officer. First, some housekeeping matters. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including new and updated expectations for our business and results of operations following the validus transaction. 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 renre.com. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin.

Thanks, Keith. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining today's call. in 2023 renaissance re achieved several strategic milestones we began the year with two overarching goals first to achieve a step change in property catastrophe reinsurance pricing and second to grow into one of the best underwriting markets in a generation i can now say we successfully achieved both of these goals and exceeded even our own high expectations As a result, we delivered excellent financial returns for the year and positioned the business to create enduring shareholder value moving forward. This was evident in robust contributions from each of our three drivers of profit, underwriting fees and investment income during both the fourth quarter and the year. For the quarter, we reported $623 million of operating income and a 33% operating return on common equity. For the year, we reported $1.8 billion of operating income and a 29% operating return on common equity. Also for the year, we grew our principal metric, change in tangible book value plus accumulated dividends by 48%. Before I turn the call over to Bob to discuss these results in more detail, I'd like to take a few minutes to share a bit more context on our strategic achievements in 2023. Starting with the step change in property catastrophe reinsurance. To achieve the step change, we needed to fundamentally realign the protections we provided our customers against large catastrophic events. We did this by significantly increasing rates and retentions and improving terms and conditions. We also rationalized structures to reduce overly broad exposure to relatively small events. Ultimately, we provided an additional margin of safety against volatility, protecting our equity and our returns. We accomplished these objectives at January 1st last year and sustained the step change momentum throughout the year. As a result, in 2023, we constructed what was the largest and most profitable underwriting portfolio in our history. As I will discuss later, the momentum behind this portfolio is persisting into 2024. Turning to our second strategic goal. We recognized the importance of growth in this favorable underwriting environment, and we substantially accelerated our growth by acquiring one of the best reinsurance assets in the market, Validus REIT. Leading up to our acquisition of Validus, reinsurance and property catastrophe were disfavored. But we had conviction in our vision of being the best underwriter. We recognized the competitive advantage that the large, well-diversified Validus REIT portfolio could bring to us. This is in part because there is substantial value and incumbency in the reinsurance industry. This is especially true in strong markets. A critical component of Renaissance RE's value proposition to customers and brokers is our provision of consistent capacity across market cycles. This consistency, coupled with increased incumbency, was our formula for strategic success in 2023. In addition to a substantial amount of attractive premium, the Validus acquisition brought us several additional benefits. This included the addition of the Validus team, which has quickly become a valuable part of the Renaissance Free team. We continue to be impressed by their professionalism, strong work ethic, and deep industry knowledge. Our industry's leading risk expertise has been enhanced by their contributions. In addition, we now have a deeper and broader relationship with AIG, a long-time and valuable client. In summary, these two strategic achievements, delivering the step change and locking in profitable growth by delivering the validus portfolio, are great examples of our ability to execute decisively when market conditions are favorable. We have built the industry's leading platform to accept reinsurance risk efficiently and effectively. Looking ahead to 2024, this platform positions us to continue delivering strong financial performance and creating enduring value to our shareholders. Consequently, at the recent January 1st renewal, our overriding objective was to retain Renaissance Reef's legacy lines while renewing the validus business we choose to keep. Critically, we sought to do so without disrupting the favorable market conditions brought about by the step change in reinsurance. I am pleased to report that we were overwhelmingly successful in this endeavor. Clients and brokers broadly supported our efforts to become a larger and more relevant partner, a role that we are proud to serve. The result was beneficial to all of our stakeholders. Our customers benefited from increased access to our highly rated, well-capitalized balance sheets. Brokers benefited from access to an expanded and more influential market known for providing certainty of execution and a market-leading view of risk. Our capital partners benefited from increased access to desirable risk. And our shareholders, of course, benefited from improvements in each of our three drivers of profit. The underwriting environment remains robust. and our success retaining the validus portfolio provides a significant tailwind. As Bob will discuss in a minute, our investment portfolio should meaningfully add to our bottom line, and growth in our fee-generating business capital partners should persist. That concludes my initial comments. I'll provide a more detailed update on the renewal and our segments at the end of the call, but first, Bob will discuss our financial performance for the quarter.