Good day, and welcome to the International General Insurance Holdings Ltd.’s Second Quarter and First Half-Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants’ are in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask question. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Robin Sidders, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Alan, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's conference call. We'll be discussing our second quarter and half-year 2023 results, which you will have seen on our website in the press release that we posted, 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 www.iginsure.com. We've also posted a supplementary investor presentation, which can be found on our website on the Presentations page in the Investors section as well. On today's call are Executive Chairman of IGI Wasef Jabsheh; CEO Waleed Jabsheh and Chief Financial Officer, Pervez Rizvi. 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 second quarter 2023 and also give some insight into current market conditions and our outlook for the remainder of 2023. At that point, we'll open up the call for Q&A. But before handing over to Wasef, I'll begin with the 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, 2022. The company's reports on Form 6-K and other filings with the SEC, as well as our results press release issued yesterday, after the close. 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, as you are aware, we voluntarily changed our basis of account from IFRS to U.S. GAAP at the very beginning of 2023, January 1. During the call we will 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 available on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Wasef Jabsheh.

Thanks, Robin and good day everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. We will today -- to do today's call a little bit differently. I'm going to have Waleed take the lead and talk you through the results for the second quarter and half-year and what we are seeing in the markets. As you know, I remain the Executive Chair and effective July 1, Waleed took over [Indiscernible] as CEO. This is part of succession plan that was put in place many years ago. What it was with me when I founded IGI in 2001, and he has played an important role in developing the IGI culture that has supported our long track record of success, including the exceptional results that we announced last time. This is a natural transition for us, as Waleed has served as President alongside me for over a decade. IGI is in good hands with Waleed [Indiscernible] and the Board and I look forward to continuing to provide strong stewardship to the IGI Group. I want to congratulate our people on what are really exceptional results for the second quarter and first-half of ‘23. Once again, it is the consistent and effective execution of our strategy. Knowing our capabilities and what we are good at. Our deep understanding of markets and being able to anticipate shifting trends in our markets that is leading to these consistent high quality results. And here on this point, I'd like to add that I watch the results of our peers in the market. And, I would say that IGI is superior to so many of them. And it's because of our understanding of the market and the cycles and laying the cycles correctly. And this is what IGI has been really great in achieving. We don't get…

Thank you, Wasef and thank you all for joining us today. As Wasef said and as you saw from our press release last night, we've had another exceptional quarter and a very strong first-half to the 2023 year. We certainly don't expect to achieve mid-70s combined ratios and 30-plus ROEs every quarter. But what these results demonstrate is our ability to shift our focus to lines and territories showing the momentum and keep a watchful eye and when required, even pulled back in areas where we feel the right conditions just aren't there. For IGI, the strategy is critical it always has been. We are relatively small in size, which is an advantage when it comes to moving quickly and decisively, and given the abundance of opportunities in many of our business, we were able to be selective, show healthy growth within our risk tolerances and appetite and within our ability to service new business. I will focus on some key highlights for the second quarter and first-half. As a reminder, you'll recall, we did switch our basis of accounting to U.S. GAAP as of January 1st. So, comparative numbers for the period may deviate from its numbers previously presented under IFRS [Technical Difficulty]. To the specifics, gross premium growth remained strong at over 10% in the second quarter, leading to overall growth of more than 21% for the first-half. Similar to what we said in the first quarter the opportunities we’re seeing apparently in the short tail on reinsurance segments with competitive pressures remaining across most lines on the long tail side. Specifically in the short sales segment, we recorded just under 12% growth in gross premiums for the second quarter and just over 20% growth for the first-half, when compared to the same periods of last year. Growth…

We will now begin the question-and-session. Our first question comes from Roland Mayer of RBC Capital Markets. Go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Well, I guess, good afternoon over there. Well, even Wasef, congratulations to both of you on the CEO transition.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Ron. I appreciate it.

My first question is, I believe the U.S. property growth, it’s mostly in the Florida Panhandle or Florida just generally. I was wondering if you could walk through a bit about how we should be thinking about cat exposure in the United States?

Yes, I mean, inevitably if you're guiding a U.S. property book of business, E&S book, inevitably your cat exposures are going to be there. We've grown quite a bit over the last few years. We've been in the business now in the market for about three years. And we've managed that growth to ensure that we stay within our risk tolerance and cat appetite. Obviously, we leverage that with reinsurance. So, we're very cautious with how we grow the speed at which we grow at, but there's no doubt that obviously this location in the U.S. markets are very much directed or located within the cat exposed territories. We have dipped our toes in more, because the conditions are just, you know, best we've ever seen. But we're always mindful and careful with how much we dip our toes and how we manage the overall exposures and potential net impact in the events of a -- what you call it in the event of a big event.

That makes sense. And yes, thank you so much. The next question is going to be similar. It's on the political violence business. Is there a way to sort of break out what geographic areas you're growing that business into? Anything there? Thank you.

Roland, there's no way specific, to be totally honest with you. I would say we're -- we’ve grown very well in various parts of the world. There's nothing -- there's no one geographical area that stands out as being, that they grow spot. I think it's across the board. The Middle East has been very healthy for us on the PV side. Asia, we just in the last couple of months, we added resource on the PV side out of our Malaysia office. So we're seeing slowly, but surely we're seeing traction there. And yes, I mean, the rest is really very much fed up.

Thank you. And then if I could get one more in, the annualized investment yields obviously gone up quite a bit over the last year. Is there a way to give a sort of spread where your new money yields are versus the portfolio and sort of how are you thinking about new investments there?

I mean, we continue to be cautious in how we invest and what we invest in. New money is going at anywhere between, you know, 4.5% to 6%, usually above 5%, and closer to 6%. The composition of the portfolio will remain similar to really how it's always been. We're just taking advantage of the higher interest rate environment.

That's helpful. Thank you so much for your answers.

Pleasure. Thank you.

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

Thank you all for joining us today and thank you for your continued support of IGI. If any of you have any additional questions, please contact Robin and she'll be happy to assist. I wish you all a great day. Thank you.

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