Trisura Group Ltd.

Good morning. Welcome to Trishura Group Limited's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. On the call today are David Clare, Chief Executive Officer, and David Scotland, Chief Financial Officer. David Clare will begin by providing a business and strategic update, followed by David Scotland, who will discuss financial results for the period. Following formal comments, lines will be open for analyst questions. I'd like to remind participants that in today's comments, including in responding to questions and in discussing new initiatives related to financial and operating performance, forward-looking statements may be made, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities law. These statements reflect predictions of future events and trends and do not relate to historic events. They're subject to known and unknown risks, and future events and results may differ materially from such statements. For further information on these risks and their potential impacts, please see Treasurer's Filings with Securities Regulators. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You'll then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Thank you. I'll now turn the call over to David Clare.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Treasurer maintained momentum in Q2. Insurance revenue grew 16% in the second quarter, and we reported a 20% operating return on equity. Growth, strong earnings, positive investment performance, and foreign exchange gains lifted book value to over $695 million. Effective this quarter, we have refined the naming convention for our operating segments. What was previously referred to as Tresure Canada has been renamed Tresure Specialty and includes U.S.-generated business in the surety and corporate insurance lines. Tresure U.S. has been renamed Tresure U.S. Programs, acknowledging the range of structures in that segment. There have been no changes to what is operationally reflected in the two reporting segments. In Trishura specialty, each line of business contributed to growth over the prior year. Canadian fronting and surety led the way, growing 33% and 19% respectively. Canadian fronting grew as a result of a more mature platform and continued growth of certain fronting relationships, while surety growth was driven by increased market share, expansion in the US, and increased construction values. Warranty grew 13% as we expanded programs with existing partners. Corporate insurance growth was muted at 2% over the prior year due to continued expansion of distribution relationships despite balancing market conditions. Strong growth in specialty was complemented by consistently profitable underwriting with a loss ratio of 19.6% in the period, in line with the prior year. We observed a slightly higher expense ratio as a result of startup costs related to U.S. corporate insurance and insurity, some non-recurring costs from changes in reinsurance structures, and a shift in business mix towards fronting, which carries a higher expense ratio. This drove a higher combined ratio of 89.8% versus recent history. On an operating basis, combined ratio was 87.5% in the period. The combination of growing and profitable underwriting with enhanced investment income, which grew 73%, supported a 14% increase in operating net income and a 28% operating return on equity. U.S. programs' insurance revenue grew 14% to $534 million as programs matured. Q2 is historically our highest premium quarter of the year, and we continue to expect full-year growth to be lower than previous years. Our admitted capabilities continue to grow as we generated $105 million in admitted insurance revenue in the quarter. The market continues to drive opportunities to excess and surplus lines, and we are well-positioned to capture business in both segments. US programs generated $22 million in fees, a 17% increase, and recorded $45 million of deferred fee income, indicative of future fees to be earned and a new record for our platform. Operating results in the quarter were strong and demonstrate progress made on improved profitability. Our loss ratio and front-end operational ratio rose to 68% and 85.5% respectively. Front-end operational ratio increased as a result of a slightly higher loss ratio and higher program retention, which increases the front-end operational ratio despite higher profitability. I should note that when retention increases, front-end operational ratio may increase, despite consistent expectations for profitability. Growth and greater investment income contributed to a 21% increase in operating net income and supported a 15% operating return on equity. On an annualized basis, the U.S. program's operating ROE was 18% for the first half of the year. We observed healthy, albeit stabilizing pricing trends across most lines and continue to expect hardening trends in certain lines to balance, although not reverse in the year. This will be informed by the state of the reinsurance market, as well as economic and interest rate trends, and we feel well-equipped to navigate this environment. Our pipeline of programs under consideration continues to grow. Net investment income grew 42% as a result of a larger portfolio and higher yields. We maintain a more defensive and higher quality portfolio than almost any time in our history. We have continued to extend duration, redeploying short duration securities and cash into longer duration instruments. Our goal is to secure current yields for years to come. We have observed rate reductions in Canada and anticipate the U.S. to follow this year. In the quarter, we added capital to our new surety balance sheet in the US and continued the process of expanding licenses and rate filings for US surety and corporate insurance. We expanded financial flexibility following an increase in our revolving credit facility to $75 million. We remain well capitalized across all entities and continue to evaluate both organic and inorganic opportunities. On June 3rd, we hosted our annual general meeting and second annual Investor Day. As part of the Investor Day, we hosted fireside chats with the specialty and U.S. programs management teams, providing the opportunity for investors to meet a broader group of Tricia or team members. For those who may have missed it, there was a replay available on our investor webpage. At our June AGM, Sasha Hawk was appointed to our board of directors. Ms. Hawk has enjoyed a long and successful career in the financial services industry and brings legal expertise to our board. We are excited to benefit from her contributions. We remain committed to specialized underwriting as well as conservative reserving. We are planning for growth and with a capital base approaching $700 million in greater scale, we feel optimistic for the years ahead. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to David Scotland for a more detailed review of financial results.

Thanks, David. I'll now provide a walkthrough of financial results for the quarter. Insurance revenue was $772 million for the quarter and $1.5 billion year-to-date, reflecting growth of 16% over the prior year. Insurance service expense, which consists of amortization of insurance acquisition cash flows such as commissions, claims, and other operating costs, increased in the quarter and year-to-date periods. primarily as a result of growth in the business, leading to an increase in volume of claims and commission expense. Net expense from reinsurance contracts, which includes both premium paid to reinsurers as well as recoveries from reinsurers, increased in the quarter and year to date as a result of growth in the business, which has led to more reinsurance ceded, particularly from U.S. programs. Operating insurance service results and treasurer specialty for the quarter was lower than the prior year as a result of a higher loss ratio. Operating insurance service result was greater for the year-to-date period as a result of growth in the business and continued strong underwriting profitability. Operating insurance service result for U.S. programs for the quarter and year-to-date periods was greater than the prior year, primarily as a result of growth in the business. The operating combined ratio of tertiary specialty was 87.5% for the quarter and 84.8% for the year-to-date period, which is greater than the prior year as a result of a slightly higher loss ratio and higher expense ratio. with the higher expense ratio being driven by startup costs associated with U.S. corporate insurance and a shift in business mix towards fronting. For U.S. programs, the fronting operational ratio, excluding non-recurring items, was 85.5% for the quarter and 85.2% for the year-to-date periods as a result of a higher loss ratio and an increase in retained business, which generates a higher fronting operational ratio. Net investment income increased by 42% in the quarter and 53% year-to-date as a result of an increase in the size of the investment portfolio, but also benefiting from higher risk-adjusted yields. Net gains from investments was $460,000 for the quarter and $12 million for the year-to-date period, primarily as a result of unrealized gains on equity investments held at fair value through profit and loss under IFRS 9, as well as foreign exchange gains as a result of strengthening of the U.S. dollar in the period. Other operating expense, excluding the impact of share-based compensation, which is mitigated through a hedging program, increased by 17% for the quarter and 27% for the year-to-date period, reflecting growth in the business. Net income for the group was $27 million for the quarter and $63 million year-to-date. Operating net income, which adjusts for certain items to reflect income from core operations and excludes the impact of non-recurring items, including the runoff business, was $31.3 million for the quarter and $64.4 million year to date, which is greater than the prior year for both periods as a result of growth in the business, continued strong underwriting performance in Canada, improved profitability in U.S. programs, and growth in net investment income. EPS was $0.56 in the quarter, which was approximately the same as the prior year as a result of the impact of the runoff in 2023, which impacted Q2 2023 positively. EPS for the year-to-date period was $1.31, which is greater than the prior year as a result of growth in the business. Operating EPS, which reflects core operations and excludes the impact of non-recurring items and unrealized gains, was $0.65 for the quarter and $1.33 year-to-date, reflecting growth of 16% and 17.7% respectively over the prior year. Consolidated ROE on a rolling 12-month basis was 14.4% at Q2 2024, which improved over the prior year due to improved profitability from U.S. programs. Operating EPS, which was approximately the same as the prior year, at 19.6%, was approximately the same as the prior year. Equity at June 30th, 2024 was $695 million, which is greater than the prior year end as a result of positive net income in the period, as well as unrealized gains on the investment portfolio and an increase in the US dollar. Book value per share was 14.56 at June 30th, 2024, and is greater than December 31st, 2023 as a result of profit generated from insurance and investment income in the period, unrealized gains on the investment portfolio and foreign exchange gains. At June 30th, debt to capital was 12.4%, which is greater than that December 31st, 2023, as a result of additional borrowing from the revolving credit facility in the period. The company remains well capitalized, and we expect to have sufficient capital to meet our regulatory capital requirements. David, I'll now turn things back over to you.

Thanks, Dave. Operator, we now take questions.

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question will come from the line of Nick Pree with CIBC Capital Markets.

Okay, thanks. I just wanted to ask about exposure to a handful of smaller CAD events that happened subsequent to quarter end. I wouldn't think that the Toronto floods, hurricane barrel, or the crowd strike induced IT outage would have much of an impact on your third quarter results, but I thought I'd follow up just to see if your teams have identified any sources of potential exposure that investors should be cognizant of.

Thanks, Nick. No, we haven't at this stage seen any significant exposures to any of those events. Those wouldn't be areas that Trishara has a lot of business exposure or concentration in, so nothing to highlight there that we're concerned about or following.

Understood. Okay, that's good to hear. And I also had a question on your Canadian fronting business. what would prevent your reinsurance partners from going direct in that market as they grow the scale of their premium base through you like is it just simply the case that your partners don't have canadian operations and so they need to use a fronting vehicle as a conduit to access the market or do you foresee that being a risk at all yeah that's so on the first part of your question you're right these partners do not have operations in the canadian marketplace as you know

our marketplace is an onerous one to operate in as a regulated insurance company. And often it is more efficient for our partners to access this market through a structure like ours than establishing their own entity in Canada, setting up their own capital base here and operating as their own regulated entity. So you're right. They often don't have their own operations here.

Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And then last question for me, I just, I noticed another public company that operates mostly in the contract surety space in the U.S. had printed pretty strong top-line growth in the second quarter, and I think they were making reference to an improving pricing environment. I'm just wondering, have you seen any evidence of pricing trends improving or waking up a bit on the Canadian side of the border in surety?

We haven't seen material changes in pricing at this stage. I'd say the market is relatively consistent on that stage. What has happened in surety markets everywhere, including the US and Canada, is that construction values have increased significantly. Those construction values do inform bond prices for our surety group. So that is driving higher premium values. Now, in certain pockets of the market, there are individual trends, but overall, we haven't seen broad hardening trends extend to surety just yet.

Okay, great. All right, that's it for me. I'll pass the line. Thank you.

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1-1 on your touch-tone phone. Our next question comes from the line of Doug Young with Desjardins.

Hi. Good morning. Just first question. In the MD&A, it was mentioned that the loss ratio in the U.S. was elevated versus last year, I think. And I think there was mention of certain programs. And I think it's within the normal range. operating range for you, but just wanted to know what programs were you seeing pressures on? What was driving that? Any concerns to point out?

Thanks, Doug. It's a good question given a lot of the focus in the U.S. right now. We're not seeing anything somatic in variability, quarter-to-quarter, and loss ratio. You tend to have some programs that perform well in any one quarter and some that move around. In this quarter, certainly nothing that would highlight thematically from a trend perspective. We've still got a relatively consistent mix of 70% casualty, 30% property business. The composition of our loss ratio this quarter and the contributions to it don't really drive any trends that I think are informative.

Okay. And then... And I apologize, I'm probably going to ask you this a few times in future quarters too, but in the U.S., on the prior year reserve developments, you don't provide disclosure on a quarterly basis, but can you give us high level what you're seeing from a reserve development on that U.S. program business?

Yeah, I would say it's... We do a fulsome analysis of this on an annual basis, so that we do review this. Quarterly, I would say our reserve development quarter to quarter was relatively flat this quarter. I think there was some negative reserve development offset by some positive in other programs. So the materiality of that was not significant at all in the quarter.

Okay, so nothing stands out on that side. And then on the Canadian front end, I mean, the growth was, it seems like, above your expectations there. You know, I guess my question is, what's driving this? And whenever I see, you know, elevated levels of growth, you know, my mind just kind of goes to managing that risk as you grow that business out. Is there, you know, how are you going about managing that level of growth in the Canadian printing side?

Yes, two things driving the growth in that business. First and foremost, There's an expansion now of a larger book of business. So many of our established partners continue to expand their reach and their relationships with us. We've also got some new partnerships that are starting to come on board. So groups that we've established relationships with in recent quarters now started to build up books of business. I think it's a good question you're focusing on because the sustainability of any business in our space is determined very much by its loss ratio performance, both in the short term and the long term. We are seeing good results. on unseated loss ratios in that fronting practice. And managing and monitoring those results is both our jobs and our partners' jobs as reinsurers. We continue to monitor that very closely and continue to see very favorable or encouraging results. So at this stage, both the trends in pricing and trends in loss ratios and our expectations for the business are all within our normal course.

Can you remind me, and I I forget whether the MGAs or the partners you're writing through, do you retain pricing, underwriting, and claims control in Canada? I know it's a bit different than the U.S. I'm just trying to recall.

Yeah, it depends on the relationship. So there's a range of different types of relationships. Some of the front-end relationships that we have in Canada are not necessarily with per se MGAs, but brokerage units who amalgamate analogous groups of risk. So often these partnerships, we have oversight over all those items, and that's a big part of our job is controlling how those items are reviewed and governed and monitored. But you do rely on those partnerships and those third parties to execute on the established parameters that we establish.

Okay. And then just last question. The spending to build out the U.S. surety in corporate business, can you quantify what that was? I think that was backed out of operating. And can you confirm that this was something just unique to this quarter or should we expect additional expenditures on that side? That will be in reported but backed out of operating.

Yeah, so a clarification there, Doug. We only back out in the quarter what we view as truly non-recurring expenses. So specific items like regulatory or consulting fees in expanding our licenses or applying to file our rates with regulators. Those types of legal fees and regulatory fees that are truly one time we back out. But things like salaries of our growing team that we view as very much permanent Those types of items are not backed out, so you do have a load of expenses in that threshold specialty group that is probably under levered from a premium perspective. There's obviously some backing out of the one-time items, but those consistent salary expectations, those are going to be a drag until the business is up to scale. I would contemplate, at least for the next few quarters, there's some impact on the business of that. There's been that impact, candidly, for the past few quarters. And until you start to see more material premium writings in surety and corporate insurance, we think that's a cost that's very worth bearing, given the long-term potential of the platform.

That makes sense. And can you quantify? Have you provided a number?

Yeah, we haven't provided a number, but maybe we can think about that in the future, just talking about what that impact is on these ratios.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

As a reminder, that is star 1-1 to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Janique Loyne with National Bank.

Good morning. I just wanted to get your perspective. I saw the credit facility was increased by about $25 million. Debt leverage ratios are so well below target. Can you talk through how you're thinking about your capital position

today.

And obviously, given the, let's say, outperformance on growth in this quarter, how are you set up over the next 12 months?

Thanks, Jim. We did have a little bit better growth than we anticipated in this quarter, but our capital sources and our internal resources to fund that growth are very well established. We're feeling very good about our capital position, both in the context of the quarterly performance as well as what we see going forward. So I'm very happy to be able to demonstrate to our shareholders and investors that we're able to now use some internal resources to capitalize these growth initiatives. The dropping of capital down into our U.S. surety entity, we've used some excess capital at the holding company as well as, as you know, some of this revolving credit facility. In no way have we exhausted our levers here for pursuing growth. We think that there is probably $70 to $80 million of additional capacity before we start to approach, let's say, a 20% debt to capital ratio. So there's a lot of runway here to continue pursuing initiatives with internal resources.

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Jim.

Our next question comes from the line of Tom McKinnon with BMO capital.

Yeah. Hello. Um, can you guys hear me?

Okay. Hey Tom.

Okay, great. Um, just a question with respect to the move here to retain more business in the U S um, why, what's the trade off here? I mean, you're getting less fee income, but you're going to pick up on more underwriting income, excluding fee income. Um, why do you think that's a better decision? Why do you think that you'll get better growth by using that methodology? And how does that impact capital? Because I assume as you probably would have more underwriting income, excluding fee income, you might have to hold a little bit more risk-based capital with respect to that. So just thoughts with respect to that strategic decision?

Thanks. First and foremost, the decisions we're making around retention now are informed by a few changes in our platform versus when we started. So we've got a great history with many of our partners we're working with in the U.S. That allows us to more actively select and support and understand the partners that we have. So we feel very comfortable expanding retention in this environment. By that I mean pricing has been pretty good, performance has been good with a lot of these partners, and being able to get closer to these partners through higher retention just feels like a very good strategic alliance as we build out the platform. You've also got... much more familiarity with the experience of these entities and a larger capital base. So from our perspective, I think we used to talk about a 5% to 10% target of retention. That's moved up probably to a 5% to 15%. Around the edges, given our expectations for profitability of that retained business, this doesn't really materially impact our capital requirements or expectations, but it does allow us to build bigger and better strategic alliances with some of our leading partners in the US. I think mathematically here and profitability-wise, you'll see a relatively consistent expectation as retention moves around, but you've identified where that's going to come through very astutely, right? This is a shift towards earned premium rather than earned fee income on the margin.

And do you think that this is as a result of just maturing as a company, growing your your capabilities here? You're less fronting and taking on a little bit more of the risk profile here. Did the AMVS upgrade help in building into that kind of business? And is it done to improve your capabilities with your business partners or is it done to really just as a better avenue to grow earnings?

So on the first part of the question, we've always been a hybrid carrier. And so taking a portion of this risk alongside our partners has always been a strategic differentiator at the launch or the outset of Trishura. I would say that expertise has both grown alongside our familiarity with these partners, but also our capital base is growing. So the percentage of any individual program that we can take becomes a little bit larger. This really hasn't changed with an AMBEST Outlook change or evolution of the business, but what we have seen is just an evolution of the mix of business that we have. So as those programs grow with us and as they continue to renew, we find more opportunities to identify retention increase areas.

And does that impact How do you see growth coming? Is it just from taking on more of existing programs or adding new programs or both?

Yeah, it's going to be both. I mean, the bulk of our growth this year and last year has been expansion of existing programs. We've seen a continued healthy rate environment. We've seen continued expansion of distribution of our programs. So that's been the core driver of growth. This industry, if we talk about the program space or the MJ space, is continuing to grow it is a much larger space than it has been historically and the program carriers like us um hybrid funding carriers program carriers they still represent a relatively small proportion of that market and so growth in the future is going to come from two avenues it's one expansion of this market as a whole it's going to come from expansion of the market share of carriers like us And then it's going to be our ability to win business in that market. And we are one of the largest players in this space, and I think very well set up to continue taking share in it.

All right. Thanks very much.

Thanks, Tom.

Again, that is star 1-1 to ask a question. We have a question from the line of Jamie Cloyne with National Bank.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yep. Hey, Jim.

Yeah. Okay, great. Question on the investment income in the quarter, flat on the quarter versus Q1 and looking at cash and investments, a little bit of a dip quarter over quarter there from an outstanding balances standpoint. Is that kind of the right way to think about investments over the next few quarters? It's going to be fairly stable here. Or is there a little bit more work to be done on that side?

Yeah, it's a good nuance you pointed out, James. So we did have a little bit of dip in cash from redeployment into We also have talked about a little bit in the past, Q4 and Q1 tend to be higher cash balance quarters. You're collecting a lot of premiums. You're in the process of seeding those premiums either into trust accounts or to the reinsurers. So you did have a little bit of benefit from that in Q1. That's normalized now in Q2. So the growth rates that we see in investment income are likely a bit more muted in the next couple of quarters. But as the business grows, as the entity continues to grow, and grow profitably, there's always a path of capital through the operations into the investment portfolio. It just weakens that growth trend a little bit, Q1 to Q2, maybe into Q3, and then I expect that to pick up again.

Yeah, good. Got it. Thank you. Again, that is star 11 to ask a question.

I'm showing no further questions in queue at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to David Clare for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, operator, and thank you to everyone who joined today. As always, should you have any further questions or would like to reach out, we're always available to talk about the business. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.