Earnings Labs

Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (GLRE)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call· Wed, Mar 19, 2008

$18.77

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+2.70%

1 Week

+1.35%

1 Month

-8.11%

vs S&P

-14.42%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Thank you for joining the Greenlight Re fourth quarter 2007 earnings call. Joining us on the call this morning is David Einhorn, Chairman, Len Goldberg, CEO, and Tim Courtis, CFO. The company reminds you that forward-looking statements that may be made in this call are intended to be covered by the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical facts but rather reflect the company's current expectations, estimates and predictions about future results and events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions including risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are enumerated in the company's Form 10-K dated March 18, 2008 and other documents filed by the company with the SEC. If one or more risks or uncertainties materialize or if the company's underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from what the company projects. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Today's call is being recorded. All lines are in a listen-only mode, and you will be given the opportunity to ask questions following the company's remarks. I would now like to turn the call over to Len Goldberg. Please go ahead.

Len Goldberg

Management

Thank you very much and good morning. My name is Len Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer of Greenlight Re. Thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. The fourth quarter of 2007 was an interesting period in the reinsurance industry dominated by the impact of the credit crisis on both the liability and asset side of the balance sheet of many companies. However due to the net short credit position that David described in our last call and our limited exposure to credit related events on the liability side we earned $0.80 per share in the quarter. While our business model is built for the long-term, it is how we perform during these times of turbulent markets that will help define Greenlight Re. On the underwriting side, fourth quarter written premiums were down due to factors that Tim Courtis will explain in his remarks. We are excited about the January 1, renewals where we had success in an increasingly difficult market. During the IPO process we also discussed the importance of increasing our capital base from approximately $300 million to greater than $0.5 billion and the difference that would make in the opportunities we would see and be positioned to seize. This has happened as we expected, as we are now a lead market for an even wider range of claims. Before discussing some of these new opportunities I want to introduce our Chairman, David Einhorn who will discuss our overall progress and recent investment results. David?

David Einhorn

Management

Thanks, Lenny. The last 10 months bidding our way back to the IPO have been a difficult in investment environment than any that we can remember. The unwinding of the credit has had a large impact on the global markets and the economy. From the end of last April through February the S&P 500 declined about 10% and in local currency European markets have faired even worse. During this time DME Advisors generated a positive return in excess of 4%. While that sounds like a fixed income return, we believe that it is a reasonable result considering the environment. Indeed some conservative fixed income strategies have performed even worse. Last July we became concerned about the implications of the bursting of the credit bubble, and we shifted to a more conservative stance in our portfolio, which we have maintained. We are doing our best to preserve capital and to take advantage of the opportunities that we see. We encourage you to keep in mind that one of the inefficiencies we tried to take advantage of is having a longer time horizon than any other market participants. In order to do this, we have to be willing to have positions that have favorable risk/reward profiles, but may not achieve good results in the very short term. Our goal remains to drive long-term growth in book value per share by focusing on both sides of the balance sheet. Our performance in the fourth quarter demonstrated our ability to generate returns in a difficult environment. The net quarterly return in the investment account was 4.2% in the fourth quarter, even as the S&P fell 3.3%. We accomplished this by maintaining a conservative posture in our portfolio with an average net long exposure of 37%. We generated all of the returns from our short…

Len Goldberg

Management

Thanks, David. The market continues to become more competitive, but we have been able to renew some good deals and add some new transactions to the portfolio. Some of this is a direct result of our increase to capital base. Since the IPO we have seen an improvement in the quality and quantity of opportunities we are evaluating. Our success was also the result of a significant amount of communication with the brokers we work with, who represent clients we believe would be good business partners for us. We spent a great deal of time in 2007 telling the Greenlight Re story and cultivating relationships that are now paying dividends in the form of attractive opportunities and down transactions. January 1, is an active renewal date in the reinsurance business, even for our book of non-commodity business we have a number of transactions which renew at that time. We also looked at quite a few new opportunities. All told, we estimate gross written premium of about $70 million for the first quarter of 2008. This is about double over the first quarter of 2007. Since the majority of the January business is quota share. This business will also generate significant premium for Greenlight Re throughout the year under GAAP accounting rules. I would like to describe some key decisions we made that will impact our underwriting portfolio for 2008. We signed a large commercial automobile quota share with a recognized specialist underwriter. This transaction is a good example of a contract with Greenlight Re features of specialist underwriter, a private transaction, good risk adjusted returns and financial success for our partner only when the business performs well. We successfully converted one January renewal for a Cayman captive ready medical malpractice, from a small share of a traditional reinsurance contract to…

Tim Courtis

Management

Thanks, Lenny. Good morning everyone. As you analyze our results, once again we ask you to keep in mind that our mix of business is changing continuously. Since we did not begin underwriting until April 2006, and did not receive our A-minus rating from A.M. Best until later in that year, we were somewhat limited in the lines of business we could offer during 2006. This is clearly evident in any comparative analysis you might do amongst reporting period. From an overall financial perspective, our fourth quarter 2007 results are a reflection of the successful implementation of our underwriting and investment strategies, as both sides of the balance sheet contributed to our fourth quarter result. In total, Greenlight re-report fourth quarter 2007 net income of $29.2 million compared to a net income of $17.4 million for the comparable period in 2006. On a fully diluted per share basis, the net income was $0.80 per share compared to net income of $0.81 per share for the fourth quarter of 2006. For the year ended December 31, 2007, net income was $35.3 million compared to $57 million for the year ended December 31, 2006. On a fully diluted per share basis, net income was $1.15 per share compared to $2.66 per share for the 2006 calendar year. For the full year 2007, frequency business accounted for just over 60% of our gross written premium. While this is consistent with the overall emphasis we place on frequency business, the percentage of measurement is affected by the fact that frequency based quota share transactions report premium writings on a quarterly basis. As a result, it takes longer for the total amount of frequency premiums to be reported as written premiums. However, if you look at net earned premiums for 2007, the frequency business accounted…

Len Goldberg

Management

Thanks, Tim. A quick correction, I believe Tim said that 37% of the net earned premium was frequency business, I believe the correct number is 73% of our net earned premium is frequency business. You must really have read that number backwards. During the fourth quarter of 2007, Greenlight Re made important progress in the execution of our business plan as a company that operates a differentiated reinsurance strategy. It is our long-term objective to develop a profitable liability portfolio and to earn above-average, risk-adjusted returns and actively managing both sides of the balance sheet. With a strong capital base, our team in place, and our infrastructure fully built, we are looking forward to a successful 2008 and beyond. We appreciate your confidence in our company. Thank you again for your time. And now, we would like to open the call up to questions.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question is from Jim Bradshaw from [Bayers Capital Management].

Jim Bradshaw - Bayers Capital Management

Analyst

I wondered if you could just speak briefly about when you miss out or lose out on a deal underwriting. What do you think the reasons are? Is it mostly pricing, or what other factors kind of seem to be involved?

David Einhorn

Management

Jim, I would say pricing at this point in the cycle is generally the number one reason. But often before we get to that point, we will have worked long enough with the client to know whether they want to really be a partner with us over the long-term. So those deals that do leave us for pricing reasons we usually don't get to the point where we are actually quoting the deal.

Jim Bradshaw - Bayers Capital Management

Analyst

Okay. I see. So when you say long-term you mean so in future renewals you feel pretty confident that that's the company would want to renew with your or?

David Einhorn

Management

That's the intent. We put a lot of work into every renewal and we would like to think that our partners would be long-term partners with us.

Jim Bradshaw - Bayers Capital Management

Analyst

And then for the renewals that you end up losing out on that not including the ones that are like the voluntary losses. Is that kind of a similar thing, you think it maybe pricing at that point?

David Einhorn

Management

I think some of that is definitely pricing, absolutely.

Jim Bradshaw - Bayers Capital Management

Analyst

Okay. I think most of my other questions were answered in your opening comments. I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your next question is from Dean Choksi from Lehman Brothers.

Dean Choksi - Lehman Brothers

Analyst

Good morning gentlemen. Len, can you talk about areas of the market where you see opportunities for better economic returns and kind of where you are focusing your marketing efforts?

Len Goldberg

Management

Yes. Sure. I think as we described on the call today, what we are looking for are rather than a particularly line of business, is we are looking for a couple of things. Number one, we are looking for market dislocations and they can come in all shapes and sizes. They are more difficult to find when there is access capital in the industry than when there is not enough capital in the industry, but they are still out there. But the other important thing about our model is we are looking for real long-term partners that will protect our downside in difficult markets and share our upside in good markets.

Dean Choksi - Lehman Brothers

Analyst

Okay, thanks. And then for the first quarter, you mentioned that there is a large commercial auto share contract. Was that the largest contract for the quarter and kind of how large was it?

Len Goldberg

Management

That is the largest single contract for the quarter. We expect that contract although it's early days, to generate over its life time about $70 million of premium annually.

Dean Choksi - Lehman Brothers

Analyst

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions. Are there any closing remark?

Len Goldberg

Management

Just thank you again for your time. And if you have any follow-up questions, please direct them to Alex Stanton of Stanton Crenshaw Communications at 212-780-1900 and he will be happy to assist you. We also remind you that a replay of this call and other pertinent information about Greenlight Re is available on our website at www.greenlightre.ky. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

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