Intact Financial Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Intact Financial Corporation Q2 2025 Results Conference Call. At this time, note that all participants are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a Q&A session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also note that this call is being recorded on Wednesday, July 30th, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Kwan, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sylvie. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the call to discuss our second quarter financial results. A link to our live webcast and materials for this call have been posted on our website at intactfc.com under the Investors tab. Before we start, please refer to slide two for a disclaimer regarding the use of forward-looking statements, which form part of this morning's remarks. And slide three for a note on the use of non-GAAP financial measures and other terms used in this presentation. To discuss our results today, I have with me our CEO, Charles Brindamore, our CFO, Ken Anderson, Patrick Barbeau, our Chief Operating Officer, and Guillaume Lamy, Senior Vice President, Personal Lines. We will begin with prepared remarks followed by Q&A. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Charles. Thanks, Jeff.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Yesterday evening, we announced net operating income per share of $5.23, driven by strong underwriting performance across all geographies and lines of business. Our book value per share increased 12% year over year, driven by an operating ROE running above 16%. Top line growth was 4%, an improvement of 1.25 over a quarter. This was attributable to continued growth in first lines for both rate actions and an increase in units. Commercial lines remain challenged as we continue to see elevated competition in large accounts. As profitability remains very strong, we're actively positioning ourselves to benefit from growth opportunities. We're entering new verticals in the U.S. and Europe. We're expanding broker relationships in the U.K. and leveraging technology to deliver a more streamlined experience for customers and brokers in Canada. Overall, our combined ratio is very strong at 86.1%, a one-point improvement year over year despite higher cash losses this quarter. A few proof points that are advances in pricing, risk selection, and portfolio management are really paying off. Let me provide some color in the results and outlook by line of business, starting with Canada. In personal auto, premiums grew 11% in the quarter, reflecting both redaction and a 2% increase in units. As profitability for the industry remains challenged, we expect hard market conditions to persist over the next 12 months. Based on this, we see industry growth in the high single-digit range. Our combined ratio improved 1 point to 90.3%. Even in what tends to be a seedily favorable quarter, this was a very strong result. We remain confident with our guidance of sub-95 combined ratio for this business. Moving to personal products. Premium growth was 10% in the quarter, driven by both rate actions and a 2% increase in units. Given the elevated level of weather and climate-related claims over the past few years, we expect current hard market conditions to persist. We see industry growth in the low double digits over the next 12 months, and the combined ratio here was also very strong at 84.5%. In commercial lines in Canada, premium growth was 1% of the quarter, reflecting low to mid single-digit rates and sustained competition in large accounts. But despite the competitive environment, we're growing our customer count. We continue to see a drag from mixed shift as we gain in SME in the mid-market space. While we remain keen to grow large accounts, We are very deliberate and disciplined where we go. Overall market conditions are favorable and constructive, and we see industry growth in the mid-single-digit range over the next 12 months. The combined ratio in this line was robust at 74%, reflecting strength in both commercial and specialty lines. Moving now to our UK&I business. Premiums in the quarter were 5% lower year-over-year due to continued remediation in the direct line portfolio and some delegated arrangements. Excluding this, premiums were up 3% year-over-year. With elevated competition continuing in large account markets, we see industry growth in the UK and in Europe in the low to mid-single-digit range over the next 12 months. The combined ratio of 92.9% was marginally higher year over year due to a modest increase in the expense ratio and large losses. We remain focused on pricing and risk selection and see our UT&I combined ratio evolving towards 90% by the end of 26. In the U.S., premiums were flat year over year, marking an improvement from prior quarter. While growth was positive across most of our lines, we experienced a five-point drag from accounts and large properties. We see industry growth for U.S. specialty in the mid-single digit over the next 12 months. The combined ratio in the U.S. was also very strong at 87.8% in the quarter, an improvement of nearly one point over a year ago. driven by the underlying loss ratio. Business is positioned to maintain a low 90s or better combined ratio moving forward. Our team continued to execute on our strategic priorities during the second quarter across the world. Let me highlight a few important achievements. While we did not experience significant cat losses this quarter, the deep trend of increased natural disasters over the last few years has not changed. And that's why in Canada, we launched Keep It Intact, a national long-term program aimed at empowering Canadians to make informed decisions and take actions to protect their homes from climate threats. We also recently announced additional funding for our municipal climate resiliency grant program, increasing it to these grants we're supporting 19 municipalities across canada which will implement proven solutions that help protect communities from flooding and well-fired in the uk we started renewing direct lines policy art onto our platform in june 2024. this has allowed us to deploy our sophisticated pricing models across the portfolio this is already contributing to an improved combined ratio our new initiative one commercial launching later this year, will deliver a single compelling proposition to brokers on service, product, and price in the UK. As we highlighted at our investor day, the competitive advantage in data and AI that we built in personal lines and commercial lines is also now being leveraged within global specialty lines. Advanced pricing models now cover close to 40% of our GSL premium base. Our values, strong sense of purpose, and long-term perspective keep us anchored as we navigate this period of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. On top of that, our healthy balance sheet positions us to capitalize on future opportunities. And so, as we look ahead, we're really well positioned to continue to achieve a net operating income per share growth of 10% annually over time, and 12 performed industry ROE by at least 500 basis points every year. And with that, I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Ken Anderson.