Operator
Operator
Thank you for joining the Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to David Sigmon, Greenlight Re's General Counsel. You may begin.
Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (GLRE)
Q2 2025 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 5, 2025
$18.77
-0.50%
Same-Day
+0.23%
1 Week
+0.92%
1 Month
-2.15%
vs S&P
-5.22%
Operator
Operator
Thank you for joining the Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to David Sigmon, Greenlight Re's General Counsel. You may begin.
David E. Sigmon
Analyst
Thank you, Kevin, and good morning. I would like to remind you that this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay following the conclusion of the event. An audio replay will also be available under the Investors section of the company's website at www.greenlightre.com. Joining us on the call today will be our Chief Executive Officer, Greg Richardson; Chairman of the Board, David Einhorn; and Chief Financial Officer, Faramarz Romer. On behalf of the company, I'd like to remind you that forward-looking statements may be made during this call and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements reflect the company's current expectations, estimates and predictions about future results and are subject to risks and uncertainties. As a result, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. For more information on the risks and other factors that may impact future performance, investors should review the periodic reports that are filed by the company with the SEC from time to time. Additionally, management may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliations to these measures can be found in the company's filings with the SEC, including the company's Form 10-K. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. With that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Greg.
Greg Richardson
Analyst
Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We reported net income of $0.3 million in Q2 2025, which brings our year-to-date net income to $30 million. Fully diluted book value per share increased 0.5% in the quarter and 5.7% for the first half of the year. We reported a combined ratio of 95.0% for the quarter, translating to $8.1 million of underwriting income. Our investment in Solasglas portfolio was down 4% in the quarter, reversing a portion of the Q1 outperformance. David will provide more color on this in his remarks. Q2 was a benign quarter from a cat activity perspective. We have updated the definition of cat event loss to be individual catastrophe loss to us of $5 million or more net of reinsurance recoveries. We also started reporting known large loss events defined as losses between $1 million and $5 million. The net financial impact of prior year adverse loss development was $2.6 million or 1.6 combined ratio points. Faramarz will elaborate on the loss development for each segment momentarily. Our underwriting result in the second quarter was largely unaffected by our previous reserving actions related to the California wildfires and the Russia-Ukraine aviation losses. On the latter, we had strengthened our reserves in Q4 of last year and the long- awaited outcome of a U.K. trial in the second quarter validated our early decisive action on this. As mentioned on our previous quarter call, we have started to non-renew a significant portion of our open market casualty book. The impact of these nonrenewals started to flow through our top line in Q2, which was offset by growth in other areas, including FAL and the specialty book. We don't have a large renewal book for 7/1, but we are seeing overall market conditions remaining similar to 1/1 and 4/1 with flat to mild single-digit decreases in risk-adjusted rate change. As we head into the peak of cat season, we feel good about our exposures and are well positioned to weather any storms. During the second quarter, we repurchased $5 million worth of our stock at an average cost of $13.99 per share. We continue to monitor our capital position in light of our various capital metrics, and we will carefully evaluate opportunities for further share repurchases as part of our overall capital management. Finally, this quarter, we have prepared an investor presentation summarizing our results and strategy, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our corporate website. We hope it provides additional context as we continue our efforts to communicate more broadly with shareholders. Now I'd like to turn the call over to David.
David Michael Einhorn
Analyst
Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everyone. The Solasglas fund returned negative 4% in the second quarter. The long portfolio and macro contributed 1.2% and 3.5%, respectively, while the short portfolio detracted 8.9%. During the quarter, the S&P 500 Index advanced 10.9%. Our biggest problem during the quarter were the lack of winners in our long portfolio and a strongly rising market. The largest positive contributors were long investments in gold and Kyndryl Holdings, equity index hedges and macro positions tied to a weaker U.S. dollar and lower short-term interest rates. The largest detractors included a short position in a profitless technology company and health care equipment business. Gold was the largest positive contributor as its price appreciated about 6% over the quarter. Kyndryl Holdings shares advanced 34% during the quarter. In May, the company announced strong quarterly results, marked by a return to positive net revenue growth and a significant increase in new customer signings. Also, the company raised its guidance for fiscal year 2026. In macro, our SOFR futures position benefited as the market priced in additional interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Also, our long euro and yen positions were positive contributors as the dollar weakened further. The largest detractors included several short positions, primarily in profitless tech and similarly speculative companies, which all rallied significantly. We found ourselves on the wrong side of a couple of short squeezes, which we had to risk manage, which means taking a partial loss. In the long portfolio, Brighthouse Financial declined 7% as the market speculated that a possible takeover may happen at a smaller premium than originally expected or possibly not at all. Throughout the quarter, there was a lot of economic activity designed to get ahead of the tariff implementation. As tariffs have now mostly come into effect…
Faramarz Romer
Analyst
Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. During the second quarter of 2025, Greenlight Re reported a net income of $0.3 million or $0.01 per diluted share compared to a net income of $8 million or $0.23 per diluted share during the second quarter of 2024. The consolidated underwriting income was $8.1 million, resulting in a combined ratio of 95%, which was 4.9 points better than second quarter last year, primarily due to no cat losses in the quarter. Our investments in the Solasglas fund lost $18.3 million during the second quarter, while other investments earned $10.5 million income, the majority of which related to interest on restricted cash and cash equivalents collateralizing our obligations to cedents. Now let's look at the second quarter results by segment. For the quarter, the Open Market segment grew net written premiums by 8% to $142.1 million. The increase was driven primarily from growth in the FAL business. Meanwhile, the casualty premiums decreased during the quarter as a result of nonrenewing the casualty book. The Open Market combined ratio for the second quarter improved by 2.1 points to 92% compared to 94.1% for the same period in 2024. The current year loss ratio increased by 1.8 points, primarily related to the casualty book and a transactional liability program. The higher loss ratio was offset by lower acquisition cost ratio, which improved by 3.1 points on lower commissions. The segment reported a net favorable loss development of $0.9 million or 0.7 combined ratio points, resulting from $9.7 million release of our specialty reserves, partially offset by reserve strengthening of casualty and multiline programs and a transaction liability program. The Open Market segment reported a pretax income of $16.8 million, composed of underwriting income of $11.2 million and investment income of $5.6 million. The Innovations segment…
Operator
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. Should you have any follow-up questions, please direct them to Karin Daly of the Equity Group Inc. at ir@greenlightre.ky, and we'll be happy to assist you. This now concludes Greenlight Re's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you. You may now disconnect.