Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Global Indemnity Group Q3 2024 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I will now turn today's call over to Steve Reis, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead sir.

Thank you, Sunita. As a reminder, today’s conference call is being recorded and some remarks may contain forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words, including without limitation, beliefs, expectations or estimates. We caution you that such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as representations by us that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by us will, in fact, be achieved. Please refer to our annual report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC for descriptions of the business environment in which we operate and important factors that may materially affect our results. Global Indemnity Group LLC is not under any obligation and expressly disclaims any such obligation to update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Jay Brown, Chief Executive Officer of GBLI.

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us for the GBLI nine-months update on our 2024 financial and operational results. Consistent with our past call, I will first provide a few overview comments and our Chief Financial Officer, Brian Riley, will review the 2024 financial highlights for both our insurance operations and holding company. Let's start with the big picture. Through nine months our team has continued to achieve results that are both consistent with our plan for 2024 and our building momentum to hit the long-term metrics, I had established great value for our shareholders. I will again remind you that our overall goals remain, first, growing our insurance business at a compound annual growth rate of at least 10%; second, achieve a combined ratio in the low 90s; and third, manage our insurance expenses to a competitive level of 36% to 37%. The results for nine months got very close to what we reported last quarter for the first six months of 2024. Insurance revenue momentum as measured by gross premium improved on the pattern we saw in the second quarter with total premium, excluding terminated products, now up 12% through nine months. This is driven by the strong year-to-date 14% growth we saw in Wholesale Commercial, InsurTech and Assumed Reinsurance. I should note that momentum continues to build that these operations grew by 23% in the year-over-year numbers for the third quarter. Our efforts to turnaround our Specialty Products business remains a work in progress as gross premium excluding terminated products remain flat through nine months. Turning to insurance underwriting performance. I am very delighted to report a nine-month combined ratio of 93.9 for the Penn-America segment. The good results continue for both our casualty and property coverages. Importantly, our rate increases continue…

Thank you, Jay. As the first nine months of tracking similarly to the first half of the year, my commentary will focus on results for the first nine months. Of course, we can answer any questions you may have on the third quarter numbers. Net income was $34.2 million, compared to $19.5 million in 2023. With the combination of net income and a $15 million increase in market value of the fixed income portfolio, book value per share increased from $47.53 at year-end to $49.88 at September 30. Including dividends paid in 2024 of a $1.05 per share, return to shareholders was 8.2% for the first nine months of 2024. For the first nine months of 2024 both underwriting and investment income performance again contributed to the improvement in net income. Starting with investments. Investment income increased 18% to $46.3 million from a year ago. Actions taken since early 2022 to sell longer dated securities and shortened duration have translated into much higher current bulk yields. Cash flows of $50 million plus $625 million of fixed income securities, yielding 3.6% that matured during the year were reinvested in an average yield of 5.1%. Current book yield on the fixed income portfolio is now 4.6% with the duration of 0.8 years at September 30, 2024. Comparatively at the end of 2022 book yield was 3.5% with a duration of 1.7 years. At the end of 2021, the book yield was 2.2% with the duration of 3.2 years. The average credit quality of the fixed income portfolio remains at AA minus. As a result of the low duration we have a $480 million investments maturing in the fourth quarter of 2024. As Jay mentioned, we're actively looking opportunities to invest in longer duration maturities to further increase investment returns. And let's move…

[Operator Instructions] Your first question from the audio lines comes from the line of Ross Haberman with RLH Investments.

Good morning, gentlemen. Nice quarter. How are you? Could you talk about a little bit more about your discontinued lines? How much is left and what's the timing in terms of get getting out of the rest of them? Thank you.

Yes, our discontinued lines at this stage we have about a little less than $5 million of earned premium that needs to run off in the fourth quarter and ends in 2025. So by the end of 2025 we'd expect that to be fully earned and full runoff on the loss reserve side.

And just one follow-up are you actively looking for more lines to purchase or get into and if so sort of what categories? Thank you.

We are constantly looking for new opportunities to expand our book of business. Right now what we've done for the past two years is create stability in our existing business and get it kind of working at its highest levels and we're going to start in 2025 and 2026 adding additional products within those lines and perhaps expanding into lines we're not currently in. And it's an opportunistic, look at the world. It's not something that we have decided in advance that we're going to do a particular product, but we're looking at things that we can evolve that are consistent with the approaches we have right now. So the answer is yes, we are looking but you won't see anything probably for another six to nine months. I'd say that now and something will probably pop up next quarter but that's kind of the timeframes that we're going to start looking to expand upon what we're doing today.

And just one last one, I apologize. Did you buy back any shares in the quarter? And if so how much?

No, we did not.

Thank you.

[Operator Instructions]

It doesn't look like there's any more questions. I guess, the numbers speak for themselves this quarter which is always a good thing. We look forward to talking to you again in three months.

Thank you very much, everybody. If you have any questions before then, please reach out to me.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.