RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.

Good morning. My name is Madison, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Renaissance Re first quarter 2025 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. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead.

Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Keith McHugh, senior vice president of finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. First, some housekeeping matters. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including new and updated expectations for our business and results of operations. 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 renley.com. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin. Kevin?

Thanks, Keith. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. I want to begin the call today by acknowledging the unprecedented degree of uncertainty in the broader economic environment. The institutions and norms of the post-war period are increasingly being questioned and in some instances disrupted. There are few, if any, historic analogs to what we are currently experiencing. Against this backdrop, we believe Renaissance Re is positioned to outperform. we have limited exposure to the political and economic shocks reverberating around the world. Our business is best described as anti-correlated to the current macroeconomic environment, especially when compared to business models that require predictability and consistency. What do I mean by this? As the world becomes more volatile and the value of many assets decrease, we become more valuable. we are paid to assume volatility and are intentionally designed to withstand it consequently we seek the volatility that others shun and as a result increase and as a result increased volatility for us equates to greater opportunity in an increasingly volatile world our customers should want more of the protection that we provide and be willing to pay more for this protection this is the type of environment where our business can thrive. With the capital market currently fixated on tariffs, inflation, and recession risk, I'd like to address head-on their expected impact or lack thereof to our business. As a financial services provider, we do not require inputs or produce products that are subject to trade tariffs. Our property catastrophe business is not directly impacted by tariffs and is highly recession resistant. This is also true for traditional casualty lines that we write and most of our specialty lines. The largest risks that we protect against, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, do not correlate to financial cycles. They need to be protected against in good economic times as well as in bad. And as you know, we are one of the largest providers of this protection. Of course, the potential for elevated inflation could increase the cost of rebuilding after large natural catastrophes. Post-event loss inflation is something we include in all of our property models. To the extent that tariffs and inflation exasperate demand search, we have the tools to price for the impact. There are a few niche specialty lines we write that may be directly impacted by tariffs or a reduction in trade. The most obvious are trade credit and political risk. I say may be impacted because so far none of them appear to be. Furthermore, these lines have many built-in protections to limit exposure to systemic shock. Regarding recession risk, we believe previous downturns are particularly instructive in demonstrating our immunity to business cycle disruptions. For the most part, insurance is necessary or a required purchase, and by extension, demand for reinsurance will persist. In previous recessions, our reinsurance premiums were largely unaffected. A recession scenario could, of course, impact our investments. That said, we have positioned our portfolio relatively conservatively in order to protect against the potential for recession. As Bob will cover in more detail, most of our investments are in high quality fixed income securities with relatively limited exposure to both high yield and equities. In fact, we have used the recent dislocations as an opportunity to increase our allocations moderately to risk assets such as equities and high yield. We also had some hedges to inflation and geopolitical risk in place, such as being long gold futures. This supported our strong mark-to-market performance this quarter and highlights our broader and integrated approach to portfolio construction across the entire balance sheet. Shifting now to a discussion of the first quarter, the world experienced multiple large catastrophes, including California wildfires and the American Airlines tragedy. Against this backdrop, our performance this quarter was strong. In an environment categorized by significant capital market disruptions and elevated first quarter catastrophes, we reported a modest operating loss. On a net gap basis, which drives book value, we made a profit. This was due to the benefit of our diversification and the favorable impact of mark-to-market gains in our investment portfolio. As a result, our primary metric, tangible book value per share plus accumulated dividends, increased quarter over quarter despite the catastrophe losses and return of $380 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. It's worth taking a step back to put our performance this quarter into perspective. As we have increased income diversification over the past two decades, we have reduced the impact of large loss activity on our results. Losses that used to impact annual results to a significant extent now only impact quarterly results to a limited extent. For example, in 2005, the year of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, we recorded a net negative impact from large events of 892 million dollars which was 82 percentage points on our annual combined ratio and resulted in annual operating return on equity of negative 13 percent in 2017 the year of hurricane harvey irma and maria as well as california wildfires we recorded a net negative impact from large events of 720 million dollars which was 59 percentage points on our annual combined ratio and resulted in an annual operating return on equity of negative 8%. In 2022, the year of Hurricane Ian and Winter Storm Elliot, we recorded a net negative impact from large events of $808 million, which was 20 percentage points on our annual combined ratio, but this time resulted in an annual operating return on equity of a positive 6%. Contrast these annual results with the first quarter of 2025. Our after-tax net The negative impact was $700 million. This is similar in absolute magnitude to the losses we experienced in each of the previous years I just described. It added about 53 percentage points to our quarterly combined ratio. Hypothetically, this works out to 13 points on our annual combined ratio. In addition, we reported an operating return on equity in the quarter of negative 3% And assuming average CAT activity for the remainder of the year, we remain on track to deliver solid full-year ROE. So you can see a clear trend. Similarly sized losses have had a reduced impact on our combined ratio over the years, declining from 82% in 2005 to 59% in 2017 and 20% in 2022 to now 13%. At the same time, operating returns on equity have consistently increased. We believe this chronology powerfully demonstrates the strength of our three drivers of profit in times of extreme events and macroeconomic instability, in other words, anticorrelation. We'll address renewals and our go-forward outlook in more detail shortly. But before turning it over, I'd like to share a few comments on our approach to business and capital management overall. To begin, the fact that the wildfires occurred in the first quarter do not change our strategy for the year. Large events occur randomly over time, and the fact that they occurred in January should not and does not impact strategic decision-making any more than if they occurred in December. Reinsurance pricing remains attractive. There is ample latent demand in markets, and our focus is squarely on continuing to grow business where it makes sense. That said, We believe the best strategy to grow tangible book value per share in the current environment is to preserve margin. Our willingness and ability to assume the risk that others shun is best channeled into margin preservation. From a capital management perspective, we have the excess capital and liquidity necessary to continue repurchasing shares. We repurchased $360 million of shares during the first quarter. since the end of the quarter, and during the recent Marc Ancelo, we continued repurchasing at very attractive prices. This is another example of our anti-correlation, providing us opportunities to proactively grow shareholder value when others pull back. That concludes my initial comments. I'll turn it over now to Bob to discuss our financial performance for the quarter before David provides more detailed update on underwriting.