Good day, and welcome to the International General Insurance Holdings Ltd.'s Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Robin Sidders, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, and welcome to today's conference call. Today, we'll be discussing our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results. 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 at iginsure.com. We've also posted a supplementary investor presentation, which can also be found on our website on the Presentations page in the Investors section. With me on today's call are Wasef Jabsheh, Chairman and CEO of IGI; Waleed Jabsheh, President; and Pervez Rizvi, Chief Financial Officer. Wasef will begin the call with some high level comments before handing over to Waleed to talk you through the key drivers of our results for the fourth quarter and full year 2022, and also giving some insight into current market conditions and our outlook for 2023. At that point, we'll open the call up for 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 the 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 forth in the company's annual report on Forms 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2021, 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. In addition, we use some non-IFRS financial measures in this conference call. For a reconciliation of non-IFRS financial measures to the nearest IFRS measure, please see our earnings release, which has been filed with the SEC and is available on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Wasef Jabsheh.

Thank you, Robin, and good day, everyone. Thanks for joining us on today's call. We had another excellent year in 2022 to close out our 20th anniversary year. As we’re in our third decade, we are in our strongest position ever, with exceptional teams across the company, a performance-based culture, and a proven ability to manage the growth, volatility and the cyclicality of this business. For 20 years, our focus has been on creating a solid and lasting company, built on financial strength, innovation and one that is a fair partner to all our stakeholders. Our track record of earning stability and consistency shows that we are certainly on the right path. We posted record results in many of our key metrics in 2022. Our full year combined ratio of 78.5% and core operating return on average shareholders' equity of 22.7% demonstrate how our strategy and execution capabilities are driving consistent high quality returns and shareholder value. I'd like to thank all of our IGI family for their focus and dedication to the continued success of IGI. Waleed will talk about the results in more detail and specifics on what we are seeing in the market. So just a few more comments from me. Overall, the market remains robust, with varying competitive pressures leading to some fragmentation between lines and territories. Our industry continues to face a lot of headwinds with social and financial inflation, political instability and increasing frequency and severity in natural catastrophes, among others. The market is becoming more challenging generally. Nevertheless, we are still seeing and expect to continue to see some very good opportunities for new business across our portfolio. So we continue to be optimistic about our future and continuing to deliver on our commitment to creating value for the long-term. Now Waleed can take you through the results for the quarter and full year, and provide more details on our outlook for the remainder 2023. Waleed?

Thank you, Wasef, and thank you all for joining us today. I'm going to start with some key highlights in our results for the fourth quarter and full year and then I’m going to talk to what we're seeing in our markets and opportunities ahead. As Wasef said, our results in '22 were excellent, and really demonstrate the consistent execution of our strategy, the focus and commitment of our people, and our ability to shift gears within the changing market conditions. I’d echo Wasef's comments and commend everybody at IGI on their hard work, their dedication and the great results we've achieved in 2022. You saw from our press release issued last night that we had record results in a number of line items. Net underwriting results increased over 40% to $148.5 million, leading to an after-tax profit of 85.5%, almost double that of the previous year 2021. And a combined ratio of 78.5%, showing 7.9 points of improvement over 2021. And our book value per share was $9.49, up 7.5% from year-end '21 and over 25% since we became a public company in March of 2020. Other highlights for the full year, gross premiums written increased by 6.6%. This is on the back of increases of more than 16% in 2021 and 33% in -- more than 33% in 2020. Total assets increased 7.5%, total equity up by 6.9%. We continue to make some adjustments in our investment portfolio during the fourth quarter, increasing our allocation to higher rated bonds, managing the duration of the bond portfolio down to three years at December 31, 2022 from 3.3 years at September 30th. And that's the fourth straight quarter we’ve reduced the duration of bond portfolio, whilst maintaining average credit quality at A minus. We also increased our cash and short-term…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Mark Dwelle from RBC.

A couple of questions. First, there was a relatively higher level of catastrophe losses in the quarter than maybe what I was expecting. Can you talk about where you had exposure there and what the factors were in that?

Yes. Hi, Mark. Thanks. There wasn't any specific event that made up those numbers. It was really -- the majority of that amount is more general cat loads that we have in our reserves, and we kept following Ian and the slow -- and some of the other events that happened throughout the year. We've noticed maybe a little bit of a slowdown in the way it's being reported. And so we've -- the most -- most of that is made of the general cat load. We were -- we had a couple of million dollars exposure on Hurricane Ian and a little bit on Australian floods, but there was no specific event that had any sort of material impact on the numbers.

That's helpful. I knew there's some of the winter storms in the U.S. were big for a lot of the U.S. carriers, but I wouldn't have figured you had exposure there. So I was curious there's something I missed and that helps clarify. The second question that I had -- and this is really just trying to patch together a couple of the comments you made in your opening remarks. So it sounded like in the fourth quarter you saw some market behavior that you weren't keen on and accordingly, refrained a little bit from growing the book at that point, and particularly in the long-tail lines. And then if I'm interpreting it correctly, that gave you the opportunity to then take a little bit better, fuller advantage of some of the conditions that prevailed around the January 1 and early first quarter renewals? Is that the right way to think about your comments?

That's almost exactly the way to think about my comments. I mean, we were pretty surprised and disappointed with the behavior that we were seeing in the markets. I mean especially following from August, September of last year, the market had -- the reinsurance market was showing clear direction of where it was going. Unfortunately, from what we observed in the latter part of the year, the direct markets chose to really ignore that, what they knew what was coming. We felt that they didn't choose to react or be proactive with it. And so you did find some erratic behavior, some increased competition. And it was behavior that we weren't willing to be a part of. That being said, come 1/1, the reinsurance markets were true to their words and action. And since then, we've seen a huge shift in dynamics within certain markets, certain territories, certain lines of business. And as we said, especially really on where we're seeing it is on the short-tail business, on the Reinsurance segment, and it's a markedly changed environment than what it was just a couple of months ago. And so, the opportunities have -- so far this year, I can say, have been all honesty exceeded our expectations. And hope that this -- and expect that this continues throughout the remainder of the year.

Were there any particular lines in the fourth quarter or late in last year that seemed to be particularly erratic?

I mean, we saw and we've been seeing, not erratic, but it's almost like consistent in the long-tail side; on the FI, the D&O, we've seen trending and downward pressure on rates consistently. And we expect that to continue throughout the year. Where we probably saw the erratic behavior that has now reversed itself more so far this year, is probably on the property side in all honesty and more so on the international book than the U.S. book, but that -- again that become -- that come around to a different story so far this year. I mean, we will continue to focus on those areas where we feel the returns are healthiest. And that's always been how we've done things and I think are the critical parts of our strength and competitive edge. And I think '23 is going to provide great opportunity and more opportunity than '22 did.

And can you just remind me about what percentage of your book is written in pounds and in euros as compared to dollars…?

It's about a third of the book that is written in pounds and euros combined, maybe a little over 35% to 40%.

[Operator Instructions] This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Wasef Jabsheh for any closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support. And we will continue building on our successes, so that we continue to generate value for you in the future years. If you have any additional questions, please contact Robin and she will be happy to assist. Have a good day.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.