James River Group Holdings, Inc. Common Stock 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Please go ahead. Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody.

Welcome to James River Group's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. A reminder that during the call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on current beliefs, intentions, expectations, and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties are detailed in the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in yesterday's earnings release and the risk factors of our most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other reports and filings we have made with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, during this presentation, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings press release for a reconciliation of these numbers to GAAP, a copy of which can be found on our website.

Lastly, unless otherwise specified, for the reasons described in our earnings press release, all underwriting performance ratios referred to are for our continuing operations and business that is not subject to retroactive reinsurance accounting for loss portfolio transfers. I will now turn the call over to Frank D'Orazio, James River's Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you for that introduction, Bob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I would like to pick up today's call with the very same theme we have emphasized over the last several quarters. Organizationally, profitability remains our primary focus, and we saw that evidence in the 92.8% combined ratio we achieved for our E&S segment, a meaningful improvement from the 96.5% we recorded last quarter, which was largely impacted by some unique legacy reinsurance dynamics. As you have heard from other competitors this quarter, the property and casualty market continues to transition. As conditions shift, our objectives remain the same, to direct underwriting capacity and capital towards areas offering the most attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining the discipline to walk away from opportunities that do not meet our profitability expectations.

We are stewarding the portfolio amidst a transitioning market while taking meaningful expense out of our business and strategically capitalizing on more efficient ways to target profitability over growth. A prime example of this activity is evident in our Specialty Admitted segment, where we have significantly downsized our writings and deliberately reduced our net exposures in a competitive fronting market while removing over 40% of the expense base in the segment during the year. While the decrease in the group's overall gross written premium is largely impacted by the intentional downsizing of our Specialty Admitted segment, at the same time, we have increased our gross to net premium retention nine points to 55% this quarter from 47% in the same quarter last year.

With the shift away from fronting, while also taking advantage of several years of underwriting improvements in our E&S segment that we see manifesting in our most recent underwriting year results. As for market conditions, we continue to observe additional capacity entering sectors of the E&S market, primarily through MGAs and other newer market participants. As has been the case for several quarters now, property remains characterized by abundant capacity and a more competitive pricing environment. The story in casualty is more nuanced. Social inflation and elevated loss severity continue to create pressure across many casualty classes, so positive rate opportunities remain available in several areas where we continue to focus, including excess casualty and certain specialty lines. Today's market requires underwriters to pick their spots and for established participants to leverage long-standing distribution and client relationships.

While the impact of industry competition is prevalent in the property marketplace and also notably pronounced in the larger account casualty space, we have continued to remain focused on smaller insureds as market conditions have softened based on our own historical views of the profitability and renewal retention levels of this sector of the market. During the quarter, submission activity continued to grow. Our submissions for active divisions increased 4%, and 10 of our 13 underwriting divisions quoted more business than they did a year ago, with quotes on new business also increasing by 4%. As we discussed last quarter, the implementation of our AI-enabled underwriting workbench continues to progress, with a handful of departments now employing the initial deliverables from these tools, including excess casualty and small business.

Our objective is to improve underwriting efficiency, increase quote responsiveness, and more directly focus our underwriters' attention on submissions that fit our appetite and pricing objectives. We are still early in the implementation process, but our initial progress is encouraging. Turning to production. The drivers of the lower premium volume in the quarter are largely tied to a few specific dynamics, including deliberate underwriting appetite changes in the business mix and competitive dynamics within certain areas of the market, reflective of ongoing portfolio management in a shifting marketplace. There are a few important dynamics to cite when analyzing our production, in particular, when comparing levels versus prior year.

First, our previously discussed decisions to put our contract binding department into runoff and to non-renew certain tracked housing exposures within our manufacturer's and contractor's division removed nearly $10 million of renewable premium from the quarter and approximately $25 million of premium from the portfolio over the past year. In particular, the construction accounts also carried average premium sizes that were significantly larger than our overall average premiums per policy. Secondly, the quarter was marked by an unusually significant amount of account premium that remains in force but did not renew because account renewal effective dates have moved to other quarters, as well as a large non-recurring project in our energy department. Production impact from this renewal timing dynamic, as well as the energy project, amounted to over $16 million in gross written premiums. Finally, business mix has become increasingly important as the market continues to transition.

For example, within our Specialty E&S division, we continue to see attractive opportunities and healthy margins, but the business we are writing today in these areas generally consists of smaller accounts below our average premium per policy levels of recent years. As a result, early growth opportunity is initially seen through increased admissions, quote activity, and policy count before translating into meaningful premium growth. Aided by our technology investment, we believe we are positioning the segment well for future profitable growth. On the other side of the P&L, our focus on expense discipline continues to produce tangible benefits. In the aggregate, our G&A expense was down 9% through the first half of the year compared with the same period last year.

Those savings have been driven primarily by our Specialty Admitted and corporate segments and represent another example of our continued effort to improve efficiency, particularly in a transitioning market. With that, I'll turn it over to Sarah to discuss our financial results in greater detail.

Thank you, Frank, and good morning, everyone. This quarter, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $4.4 million, which compares to net income of $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2025, which is a 59% increase. Operating earnings were $10 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, as compared to $11.7 million or $0.23 per share in the prior year quarter. Our annualized operating return on tangible common equity for the quarter was 10%, and tangible common book value per share increased slightly from the start of the year to $9.01. The consolidated combined ratio was 100.2% and consists of a 66.3% loss ratio and 33.9% expense ratio for the quarter. As Frank mentioned, the E&S segment in particular generated a combined ratio of 92.8%. As Frank mentioned, the consolidated results heavily reflect our deliberate actions leading to lower earned premium, particularly within Specialty Admitted.

We've deliberately shrunk our segment, given the competitive conditions in the fronting and admitted market generally, and have done so while removing a significant part of the expense supporting the business. Expense reduction remains an important contributor to our overall performance and is an active and ongoing effort. General and administrative expenses declined $2.5 million or 7% compared to the prior year quarter and were down 9% on a year-to-date basis. Savings were primarily driven by our Specialty Admitted and corporate segments, down 39% and 9% respectively, and reflect the actions we've taken over the last several quarters to simplify the organization, improve efficiency, and better align expenses with the size and composition of the business. The largest portion of these savings came from lower compensation-related expenses, including the impact of organizational efficiencies. We continue to actively improve operating efficiency across our business functions, and expenses remain firmly in focus.