Good day, and welcome to the International General Insurance Holdings Third Quarter and Nine-Month 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Robin Sidders, Head of Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Bailey, and good morning, and welcome to today's conference call. Today, we'll be discussing the financial results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2025. You will have seen our results press release, which we issued after the market closed yesterday. If you'd like a copy of the press release, it's available in the Investors section of our website. We have also posted a supplementary investor presentation, which can be found on our website on the Presentations page in the Investors section. On today's call are Executive Chairman of IGI, Wasef Jabsheh; President and CEO, Waleed Jabsheh; and Chief Financial Officer, Pervez Rizvi. As always, Wasef will begin the call with some high-level comments before handing over to Waleed to talk through the key drivers of our results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2025 and finish up with our views on the market conditions and outlook for the remainder of this year and the upcoming January 1, 2026, renewals. At that point, we'll open the call up to Q&A. I'll begin with some customary safe harbor language. Our speakers' remarks may contain forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words. We caution you that such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by us that future plans, estimates, or expectations contemplated by us will, in fact, be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including the risk factors set out in the company's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024, the company's reports on Form 6-K and other filings with the SEC, as well as our results press release issued yesterday evening. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. During this conference call, we use certain non-GAAP financial measures. For a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP measure, please see our earnings release, which has been filed with the SEC and is also available on our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Wasef Jabsheh.

Thank you, Robin, and good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. IGI once again delivered excellent results both for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2025. We generated net income of $33.5 million and $94.9 million for the third quarter and first nine months, respectively. And this resulted in an annualized return on average equity of 20% for the third quarter and 19% for the first nine months of the year. We continue to outperform and deliver superior results even in what is becoming a more competitive marketplace. We have consistently demonstrated our ability to perform well no matter where we are in the market cycle through focus, discipline, and consistent execution. That really is the hallmark of our strategy and why we have successfully managed the cyclicality of our business for well over two decades. Our value at IGI is in our ability to actively manage our capital so that we generate consistently high-quality returns in any stage of the market cycle. So far, in 2025, in addition to strong earnings, our active capital management has resulted in us growing book value per share by almost 10% to $16.23 per share in the first nine months of the year and returning a total close to $100 million to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases. Before I hand over to Waleed, I want to congratulate all of our people at IGI on the tremendous news of our S&P financial grade upgrade to A with a stable outlook. When we started writing business back in 2002, we were unrated. It was only three years later, in 2005, that we assigned our first rating of BBB from S&P. To see how far we have come since the early days of IGI through sheer hard work and decision focus gives me immense pride. We have grown largely organically from $25 million of initial capital to almost $700 million in shareholders' equity. This is quite an achievement. I will now let Waleed discuss the numbers in more detail and talk about market conditions and our outlook for the remainder of the year, and I will remain on the call for any questions at the end. Waleed, please go ahead.

Thank you, Wasef, and good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on today's call. Just reiterating what Wasef emphasized at the beginning, we had an excellent third quarter with strong underwriting and investment performance, leading to a very solid bottom-line result. As Wasef indicated, I mean, we're in our strongest position ever as we close out 2025 and look ahead into 2026 in what is becoming a more challenging environment. But before I go through the numbers in detail, I'd like to highlight a couple of important points to begin with. First, as Wasef mentioned, the recent announcement from S&P that they've upgraded our financial rating to full A, I mean, this really is a fantastic achievement for us. And while it's very difficult to quantify the short-term benefit, the upgrade undoubtedly will open more doors for us to new business and more clients and cedents as well. Like Wasef, I'm also extremely proud of this outstanding achievement. And I congratulate all our teams on the strong track record and the foundation that we have built together at IGI. I would note that this doesn't really change anything about the level of capital we hold. We've always held capital to the highest level of S&P's capital adequacy and confidence level requirements, and we'll continue to do so. Second, you will have seen our announcement this morning that our Board has authorized a new $5 million common share repurchase authorization, now that we've exhausted the prior program of 7.5 million shares. We view share repurchases as a strong value generation lever. And at current levels, we believe that repurchasing our shares is highly accretive and excellent value for our shareholders. So as always, we're working with all the tools we have in our toolbox, and that's really what cycle…

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Michael Phillips with Oppenheimer.

Well, I always appreciate all your comments on the market conditions. I guess another good quarter on the margin side, you're fighting the tape that the industry is fighting on the top line. I guess with that, on the long-tail side of your business, the segment there, can you talk about are you closer to the point with rates declining? I think you said in your ending comments there that the pace of decline is starting to slow; maybe it's not good news. But are you closer to the point where the nonrenewal account that you did last quarter? I know you constantly look at that. Are you close to the point where there might be others that are not meeting your threshold that you kind of have to walk away from?

Michael Phillips, thanks for the question. The simple answer is no. That book of business that we walked away from had its particular characteristics and segment that you can simply isolate in terms of the niches and the behavior of the market in that regard. So outside of that, no, there isn't anything on our screens that we are contemplating walking away from. If anything, we're identifying other segments of the PI market. As I mentioned on the call, people moving shops, wanting support, whilst I can't go into lots of details at the moment, but these are underwriters that we know very well, have some of the strongest track records in the market, understand their businesses inside out, and are looking for support. We're trying to capitalize on those opportunities where we can access portfolios of businesses that we deem extremely healthy that can more than make up, especially on a net written premium basis, can more than make up for the PI account that we walked away from.

I guess maybe turn to the reinsurance segment for a second. There, it seems like we're getting closer to 1/1 renewals here. And as you said, year-to-date, you're up, and the third quarter is not a big renewal period for you. But as you look at the beginning of the year here, do you think that there's going to be more pressure on the top line for your reinsurance book than what you've seen in 1Q each quarter each year for the past couple of years has been pretty strong. This quarter this year might challenge that. I guess what are your thoughts on reinsurance if we enter 1/1?

I mean, listen, Q1 this year was strong. Q1 last year and the year before were very, very strong because we were in a different stage within the cycle for the reinsurance market. There's no doubt about that. Is that going to continue? Of course, it's not going to continue because you're seeing pressure coming in, where, following a very benign wind season this year, we've got less than 2 months left in the year. If barring any major events in that time period and ahead of discussions and negotiations for the 1/1 business, the market is going to generate another great set of results, generate excess capital, and that's going to put pressure on feeling that capital. Is Hunger going to increase as we stand today at 1/1? I have no doubt that it will. One thing that you need to take into consideration, number one, we're adding the specialty bit. So that's a new source or relatively new source of income for IGI. And number two, our book is so diverse by business line, by geography. It's not your traditional large reinsurer type portfolio, not your traditional European reinsurance portfolio, traditional Bermudan reinsurance portfolio, or U.S. reinsurance portfolio. So, we've got a lot of levers to pull here. And we've said this before, and I'll say it again, Mike, ultimately, this is not a top-line game. We are in this for underwriting quality, underwriting profitability. And I think I recall a comment I said to you a couple of quarters ago, I'd rather write a $700 million book generating 80% combined ratio rather than $1 billion book generating a 90% or 95% combined ratio. We are underwriters, plain and simple. We manage the cycle. But I do see runway for us in reinsurance, definitely, as we, would you call it, enter into new areas, not just in specialty, but others. We've got a team across the globe, honestly, that pretty much understands what they're doing. And you can see that in the results. We put emphasis on reinsurance a couple of years ago, and we said that's where the area where we think the healthiest returns will be generated. And as you're seeing now, that's exactly what's happening.

And I'm glad you reminded me of the quote that you gave a couple of quarters ago. That was one of my favorite quotes all the time. You'd rather focus on the bottom line, and you guys do that. I guess, given your comments, your reinsurance book, as you said, is not traditional large reinsurance. So maybe just lastly, to the extent you can comment on industry comment here, in the U.S., we're hearing a mixed story. Some reinsurers are saying that large account property has reached a floor and will start to improve from here. Others are saying, heck, a way, it's still going to continue to decelerate from here on large account property in the U.S. I don't know if you have any perspective on that or not. I appreciate it. By large account property, you mean risk covers or cat covers?

Risk covers, yes.

Risk covers.

I don't think it's bottoming out, to be totally honest with you. That's not what we're seeing. But again, that's not an area we play in hugely, especially on a reinsurance basis. But I think the hunger will continue to be there at 1/1. I don't anticipate things turning in the opposite direction in that area. But again, I would say I'm not the best person to answer that question.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Just some final words. Again, thank you for joining us today. Thank you all for your continued support of IGI. If you have any questions, as always, you can contact Robin, and she'll be happy to assist. And we look forward to speaking to you on next quarter's call. In the meantime, I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I know it's a bit early, and happy New Year to all. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. You may now disconnect.