Hamilton Insurance (HG) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Hamilton Insurance (HG) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley FoolFri, August 14, 2026 at 12:03 AM UTC
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Friday, Aug. 7, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS -
Investor Relations - Darian Niforatos
Group Chief Executive Officer - Giuseppina Carmela Albo
Group Chief Financial Officer - Craig William Howie
TAKEAWAYS -
Net Income -- $143.8 million, or $1.42 per diluted share, reflecting underwriting results and investment performance.
Operating Income -- $158.2 million, or $1.56 per diluted share, compared to $161.8 million in the prior year period.
Annualized Return on Average Equity -- 20.6%, while the annualized operating return on average equity reached 22.7%.
Gross Premiums Written -- $831.0 million, an increase of 16.7% driven by growth in both new and existing business in casualty and specialty insurance and reinsurance classes.
Net Premiums Earned -- $586.0 million, representing 14.6% growth year over year.
Combined Ratio -- 95.0%, up from 86.8% due to higher catastrophe losses and reserve strengthening in casualty.
Underwriting Income -- $29.1 million, a decrease from $67.5 million primarily due to catastrophe activity in the Middle East.
Catastrophe Losses -- $49.9 million, adding 8.5 percentage points to the loss ratio, with $45.7 million attributed to the Middle East conflict.
Casualty Reserve Charge -- $16.1 million, following a scheduled casualty deep-dive review and additional information regarding a single loss from 2018.
International Segment GPW -- $420.1 million, an increase of 21.8% driven by a 22% rise in Hamilton Global Specialty and 18% growth at Hamilton Select.
Bermuda Segment GPW -- $411.0 million, a 11.9% increase reflecting casualty reinsurance growth offset by price-driven pullbacks in property insurance.
Net Investment Income -- $141.3 million, supported by $115.5 million in returns from the Two Sigma Hamilton Fund and $25.8 million from fixed income and cash.
Two Sigma Hamilton Fund Return -- 5.1% for the quarter, compared to 4.4% in the second quarter of 2025.
Fixed Income Portfolio Yield -- 4.7% yield to maturity at June 30, 2026, with a duration of 4.0 years.
Share Repurchases -- $22.1 million during the second quarter, with $137 million remaining under the current authorization.
Book Value Per Share -- $28.91, while book value per share plus accumulated dividends reached $30.91, up 8.5% from year-end 2025.
Full Year Growth Guidance -- Low double-digit percentage growth for 2026, compared to 14% growth achieved during the first half of the year.
Target Attritional Loss Ratios -- Management maintained full year 2026 targets of 54.5% for the International segment and 56% for Bermuda.
Total Cash and Invested Assets -- $6.1 billion at the end of the second quarter, up from $5.9 billion at Dec. 31, 2025.
Hamilton Select Performance -- 18% growth for the platform, which management aims to develop as a third primary underwriting pillar.
Acquisition Cost Ratio -- 24.8%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points driven by changes in the business mix.
Other Underwriting Expense Ratio -- 8.5%, a decrease of 1.5 percentage points supported by Bermuda substance-based tax credits and premium growth.
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RISKS -
Albo stated, "The clearest area of pressure continues to be property business where competition remains principally focused on price," which led the company to reduce writings in its large account property insurance book.
Howie reported that an internal deep-dive review resulted in a "modest reserve charge of $16 million on certain casualty lines," reflecting data on historical losses and inflation trends.
Management reported that Hamilton Insurance Group, Ltd.(NYSE:HG) achieved its quarterly results through selective expansion in casualty and specialty lines while reducing exposure to property insurance segments where pricing did not meet internal return thresholds. The company utilized its three underwriting platforms to navigate a transitioning market, characterized by competitive pricing in property and more stable rate increases in casualty. Strategic developments included an AM Best rating upgrade for the Hamilton Select platform, enabling an expansion into the U.S. excess and surplus lower middle market. The company maintained its full year guidance for low double-digit growth and continued its capital return strategy through share repurchases. Additionally, the Board of Directors extended the employment term for CEO Pina Albo through Dec. 31, 2029.
CEO Albo attributed the expansion of Hamilton Select to an AM Best rating upgrade to A, which allows the platform to move beyond hard-to-place risks and into the U.S. E&S lower middle market.
Management confirmed that the company is leveraging artificial intelligence as a "productivity and intelligence multiplier" for underwriters and claims professionals to accelerate submission ingestion and data extraction.
The company utilizes "smart queuing" technology to prioritize submissions with a higher probability of binding, specifically within the Hamilton Select platform.
CFO Howie noted that the casualty reserve charge represented 0.8% of net casualty reserves and approximately 0.5% of the total net reserve position.
Albo indicated that while property pricing faces pressure, contractual improvements from the 2023 market reset remain largely intact across the property catastrophe portfolio.
Management reported seeing select opportunities in marine, hull, and cargo insurance classes where rates are increasing following recent loss activity in the Middle East.
The company plans to roll out new product classes for Hamilton Select, including life sciences, as it hires additional underwriting talent and expands distribution partnerships.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY -
Attritional Loss Ratio: The ratio of losses from everyday claims, excluding catastrophes and prior year reserve adjustments, to earned premiums.
Casualty Sidecar: A financial vehicle that allows third-party investors to take on a portion of an insurance company's casualty risk in exchange for a share of the premiums.
Combined Ratio: A measure of underwriting profitability calculated by dividing the sum of incurred losses and expenses by earned premiums; a ratio below 100% indicates a profit.
D&F (Direct and Facilitative): A method of providing insurance on a specific, individual risk basis rather than as part of a broad treaty.
E&S (Excess and Surplus): A segment of the insurance market that covers high-risk or unusual accounts that standard carriers will not insure.
GPW (Gross Premiums Written): The total amount of premiums charged for all policies issued by an insurance company during a specific period.
Reinsurance: Insurance purchased by insurance companies to mitigate risk and protect against large losses.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Operator: Hello, and welcome to the Hamilton Insurance Group earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being webcast and will also be available for replay with links on the Hamilton Relations website. I would now like to turn the call over to Darian Niforatos, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.
Darian Niforatos: Thanks, operator. Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining our earnings call. Before we begin, please note that certain statements made during this call are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 2000. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. These risks are provided in our earnings release and SEC filings. We will also refer to certain non GAAP financial measures which are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in our earnings release and financial supplement. Available on our website at investors.hamiltongroup.com. Now I will introduce the Hamilton executives leading today's call.
Pina Albo, group chief executive officer and Craig William Howie, Group Chief Financial Officer. We are also joined by other members of the Hamilton management team. With that, I will hand it over to Pina.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Thank you, Darian. And hello, everyone. Let me start by welcoming you to Hamilton's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I am pleased to report another strong quarter for Hamilton achieved against a backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tensions social and economic inflation, and an insurance and reinsurance market that remains competitive. Hamilton delivered very solid results in the second quarter with net income of $144 million equal to an annualized return on average equity of 21%. This result was underpinned by a combined ratio of 95%, which includes about $50 million of catastrophe losses primarily stemming from the Middle East conflict.
Strong investment income of $141 million and thoughtful growth in select classes with gross premiums written increasing by 17% for the quarter. The results this quarter and indeed over past quarters underscores the strength of Hamilton's strategy, its diversified portfolio, and our team's ability to execute and adapt to all market conditions. Switching gears now to the midyear renewals, I will not speak too long about this. As you likely already heard from my peers over the past few days, the market is in transition. The clearest area of pressure continues to be property business where competition remains principally focused on price, while casualty remains more stable with rate increases still being achieved in many lines.
Specialty business was also competitive in many areas at midyear. That said, given the recent loss activity in The Middle East, we are now seeing opportunities in select insurance classes like marine, hull, and cargo where rates are increasing. We will consider such opportunities thoughtfully and with the benefit of our strong underwriting expertise in specialty classes. For Hamilton, the key takeaways from the midyear renewals are that while competition is robust, pricing still remains attractive across many lines. Contractual improvements in the property cat area introduced in the 2023 market reset remain largely intact. And our key client strategy and strong broker relations continue to result in achieving desired signings, and access to business we want to see.
In this environment, we are focused on preserving margin quality, astute risk selection, and supporting clients where we have strong underwriting conviction and broad trading relationships. We are also making strategic use of outward protection across our portfolio including the use of our recently launched casualty sidecar. Against this backdrop, the good news is that our team has experienced trading in this type of market environment, knows how to exercise discipline while at the same time look for opportunities. Also, having the benefit of both an insurance and a reinsurance business and diversification across a broad array of products allows us to be nimble and focus on classes where we continue to get the best risk adjusted returns.
We believe that the benefits of our platform together with our discerning underwriting approach will be the key to our continued profitability. Before moving on to our segment review for the quarter, I want to take a moment to discuss the recent developments in Hamilton Select. Before I do that, I want to make sure you know how Select fits into the Hamilton strategy. We have 2 reporting segments international and Bermuda, and 3 underwriting platforms. The international segment houses our Hamilton Global Specialty, and Hamilton Select underwriting platforms, which are predominantly specialty insurance. While Hamilton Re sits under our Bermuda segment which is predominantly reinsurance. Hamilton Global Specialty and Hamilton Re each wrote $1.4 billion in premium in 2025.
Our long term ambition is for Hamilton Select to become the third leg of our stool so to speak. Alongside our other 2 established underwriting platforms. In May, AM Best upgraded Hamilton Select to A from A-. This rating supports this vision and the continued development of our E and S platform. It also aligns with Hamilton's strategy of building a diversified global specialty insurance and reinsurance company. We believe that the rating upgrade puts us in an even better position vis a vis our broker partners and will therefore result in our seeing additional opportunities in The US specialty insurance market. Now this takes me to something I specifically want to discuss.
When we launched Hamilton Select, the company was focused on hard to place accounts in The US E and S market. A strategy that leveraged the strength of our team and their strong wholesale distribution relationships. We are now flexing these strengths as well as our proprietary technology to expand our appetite beyond distressed or pure hard to place risks. The expanded appetite includes new classes of business, which we will continue to add to over time, as well as risks in the lower middle market segment of the U.S. E&S market.
We already received submissions that fit this expanded risk profile so this is a natural evolution of our strategy that will provide our wholesale distribution partners with additional support for their clients. As you can imagine, we are very excited about this development. Moving now on to the segments. Let's look at top line growth this quarter for international and Bermuda. Starting with the international segment, International gross premiums written were $420 million or 22% over the prior period. By platform, Hamilton Global Specialty gross premiums written were up 22% driven by specialty and casualty classes specifically in core classes such as accident and health which benefited from some seasonality.
At the same time, and similar to my comments last quarter, we pulled back in our larger commercial D&F property insurance offering where we increasingly declined business which did not meet our return thresholds. Overall, our pricing assessment and underwriting framework continue to ensure attractive margins on the business we are writing even as our teams become more selective across many lines. Moving on to Hamilton Select, that platform grew 18% this quarter driven by excess casualty, excess property, 1 of the classes of our expansion strategy, and products and contractors where we still see attractive pricing, terms, and conditions. However, we were more selective on medical and professional lines given the competitive pricing environment.
Lastly, in Bermuda, we wrote $411 million or 12% over the prior period. Similar to last quarter, our most significant driver of growth came from casualty reinsurance. A meaningful proportion of this is attributable to business bound in prior quarters with much of the remainder coming from increases in our relatively modest shares on select accounts with key trading partners. Moving on to property reinsurance in Bermuda, premiums fell compared to the same period last year primarily due to decreased rates. This was partially offset by better signings on deals with select key clients.
Florida only business is the primary focus of the 6/1 renewal season, and as a reminder, this business represents only a modest portion of the Hamilton REIT portfolio. We do, however, write the Florida market on our third-party capital platform, AdaRE. For the 7/1 business, which is more national accounts, and within our wheelhouse, while pricing was competitive it still provided attractive margins and, as mentioned, the improved attachment points and terms and conditions from the 2023 market reset remains strong. Our specialty reinsurance line grew primarily due to business wins in the aviation class where pricing and conditions were attractive.
On the insurance side of our Bermuda business, similar to what we did in Hamilton Global Specialty, we also reduced writings in our large account property D&F book since pricing in this area continues to come under pressure and the metrics did not meet our return thresholds. In closing, we continue to focus on the bottom line and deliver strong results. Grow selectively in lines where margins are attractive. Invest strategically in platforms like Hamilton Select and enabling technology, add strong talent to our team, and respond thoughtfully to this complex market environment. Again, as we saw through the midyear renewals, and across both international and Bermuda, this is not a market where every opportunity should be written.
Rather, 1 where a focus on underwriting margin risk selection, and strong client and broker relationships will support continued success. With that in mind, we believe our portfolio remains well positioned to continue to produce solid results. Our teams are exercising the requisite discipline and allocating capital to risks and clients where we have the greatest underwriting conviction. With that broader context in mind, I will turn the call over to Craig to walk through the financial results in more detail.
Craig William Howie: Thank you, Pina, and hello, everyone. Hamilton had another great quarter of financial results was $104 million or $1.42 per diluted share. And an annualized return on average equity of 21% in the second quarter of 2026. We had $158 million equal to $1.56 per diluted share producing an annualized operating return on average equity of 23%. These figures compare to $187 million or $1.79 per diluted share an annualized return on average equity of 30%; $162 million or $1.55 per diluted share and an annualized operating return on average equity of 26%. in the second quarter of 2025. Moving on to our underwriting results.
Each of our platforms pursued thoughtful strategic growth in areas presenting the strongest risk adjusted returns while pulling back from lines where margins were not attractive. Our growth remains selective, disciplined, and in line with our expectations of more measured growth meaning an expectation of low double digit growth for the full year of 2026. Through the first half of 2026, the group grew top line premium by 14% to $1.8 billion up from $1.6 billion in the first half last year. Hamilton had an underwriting income of $29 million for the second quarter compared to underwriting income of $67 million in the second quarter last year.
The group combined ratio was 95.0% compared to 86.8% in the second quarter of 2025. In the second quarter, our loss ratio increased to 61.7%, up 8.9 points from 52.8% in the prior period. The increase was primarily driven by $50 million or 8.5 points of catastrophe losses compared to $2 million or 0.3 points of catastrophe losses last year. The majority of the 2026 catastrophe losses came from the Middle East conflict in the amount of $46 million or 7.8 points. We had favorable prior year attritional development of $1 million or 0.1 points in the quarter, driven by specialty and property classes offset by certain casualty classes which I will discuss when I cover the segments.
This compares to $3 million or 0.5 points of favorable development in the second quarter last year. The expense ratio decreased 0.7 points to 33.3% compared to 34.0% in the second quarter last year. The decrease was driven by lower other underwriting expenses, which included benefits from the Bermuda substance based tax credit, and third party performance fee income. Partially offset by acquisition costs. Now I will go through the second quarter results and some year-to-date results by segment. Let's start with the international segment, which includes our specialty insurance businesses, Hamilton Global Specialty, and Hamilton Select. For the first half of 2026, International grew top line $863 million, up from $715 million an increase of 21%.
As Pina mentioned, this was primarily driven by growth in our casualty and specialty classes. In the second quarter, international had underwriting income of $9 million and a combined ratio of 97.0%. Compared to underwriting income of $27 million and a combined ratio of 89.3% in the second quarter last year. The increase in the combined ratio was primarily related to catastrophe losses of $34 million or 11.1 points in the quarter driven by the Middle East conflict, partially offset by the lower current year and prior year attritional loss ratios and the lower expense ratio. The current year attritional loss ratio was 51.1% down 0.8 points from the prior period.
We still expect this ratio to be about 54.5% for the full year 2026. The prior year attritional loss ratio was a favorable 4.6 points due to favorable development in the specialty, property, and casualty classes. The expense ratio decreased 0.6 points to 39.4% compared to 40% in the second quarter last year. The decrease was primarily driven by premium growth, partially offset by lower third party fee income. I will now turn to the Bermuda segment, which houses Hamilton Re, and Hamilton Re U. S. The entities that predominantly write reinsurance business. For the first half of 2026, Bermuda grew top line premium to $908 million up from $841 million an increase of 8%.
The increase was primarily driven by growth in casualty and specialty reinsurance classes, partially offset by a decrease in property reinsurance and property insurance classes as a result of pressure on rates. In the second quarter, Bermuda had underwriting income of $20 million and a combined ratio of 93.0%. Compared to underwriting income of $40 million and a combined ratio of 84.3% in the second quarter last year. The increase in the combined ratio was driven by $16 million or 5.8 points of catastrophe losses in the quarter mainly due to the Middle East conflict and unfavorable prior year attritional losses partially offset by the lower expense ratio.
The Bermuda current year attritional loss ratio increased 1.5 points to 55.7% in the second quarter, compared to 54.2% in the second quarter last year. This increase was within our expectations given the changing business mix toward casualty reinsurance classes. The prior year attritional loss ratio was an unfavorable 4.6 points due to unfavorable development on certain casualty classes. In the second quarter, we completed our regularly scheduled casualty deep dive, which resulted in a modest reserve charge of $16 million on certain casualty lines. This represents only about 0.8% of our net casualty reserves about 0.5% of our total net reserve position.
To be clear, we completed our casualty reserve reviews and strengthened our reserves based on our own review and not because of any third party review. Our actions are consistent with our reserving philosophy of being quick to react to adverse development indications or trends, and slow to release reserves until we have more certainty. As a reminder, we will complete our specialty class reserve reviews in the third quarter and our property class reserve reviews in the fourth quarter. Historically, we have shown overall favorable reserve development each and every year since the inception of the company. The Bermuda expense ratio decreased by 1.1 points to 26.9% compared to 28.0% in the second quarter of 2025.
Driven by a decrease in other underwriting expenses which included benefits from the Bermuda substance based tax credit and increased third party performance fee income. Partially offset by the acquisition cost ratio due to a change in business mix. Now turning to investment income. Total investment income for the second quarter was $141 million compared to investment income of $149 million in the second quarter of 2025. The fixed income portfolio short term investments, and cash produced a gain of $26 million for the quarter, compared to a gain of $62 million in the second quarter of 2025.
As a reminder, this includes the realized and unrealized gains and losses that Hamilton reports through net income as part of our trading investment portfolio. The key metrics of the fixed income portfolio were as follows. An average yield to maturity of 4.7% compared to 4.1% at year-end 2025. A duration of 4.0 years, and a new money yield of 4.6% on investments purchased in the second quarter. The 2 Sigma Hamilton Fund produced a net $115 million or 5.1% for the second quarter. Compared to $87 million or 4.4% in the second quarter last year. The 2 Sigma Hamilton Fund made up about 39% of total investments, including cash investments, at June 30, 2026. Now turning to capital management.
During the second quarter of 2026, we repurchased $22 million worth of shares which brings our total repurchases for the year to $42 million. We still have $137 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. Both the share repurchases and the special dividend we paid in March reflect our ongoing commitment for active and effective capital management. Next, I would like to comment on our strong balance sheet. Total assets were $10.3 billion at June 30, 2020, up 7% from $9.6 billion at year-end 2025. Total investments were $6.1 billion at June 30. Shareholders' equity for the group was $2.9 billion at the end of the second quarter.
Our book value per share ended the quarter at $28.91 Our book value per share after adjusting for accumulated dividends was $30.91 at June 30, up 8.5% from year end 2025. In conclusion, we are very pleased with Hamilton's results through the first half of 2026. Our balance sheet remains strong, our investment returns have been exceptional, and our attritional loss ratios are tracking as expected. Overall, we believe we are well positioned to continue delivering attractive returns with a combined ratio in the low to mid-90s and with a return on equity percentage in the teens. Both of these numbers estimated on average throughout the cycle. Thank you.
And with that, we will open up the call for your questions.
Operator: We will now begin the question and-answer session. Please limit yourself to 1 question and 1 follow up. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the q and a roster. Your first question comes from the line of Thomas Mcjoynt-Griffith with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thomas Mcjoynt-Griffith: Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. The first 1 here, the past couple of quarters, you have given some nice helpful metrics on guidance for the full year. Across various metrics on a segment level attritional loss ratios and then some consolidated. Have any of those changed, this quarter with what you have seen year to date?
Craig William Howie: Hi, Tommy. it is Craig. Thanks for the question. The guidance that we had given for those attritional loss ratios has remained the same, as you heard me say in my prepared remarks, the International ratio remains at 54.5%. The group ratio is at 55% and the Bermuda ratio is 56%. Those ratios stay the same as far as what I said in my prepared remarks as well. We expect to be able to run this book in the low to mid nineties on a combined ratio on average throughout the cycle. And that is where we are as well The other piece that you asked about was growth.
We still expect to be able to grow this book in the low double digit range. As you know, we have grown this book in the past a compound annual growth rate over the past 5 years of over 22%. Right now, where we stand on a year to date basis is at about 14%. So we do expect to be in the low double digit range.
Thomas Mcjoynt-Griffith: Got it. Thanks. And then zooming in on the casualty book, within the Bermuda segment, in the first half of the year, it is still seeing very strong growth there on, you know, gross premiums growing. 29% in the first half. As you look out to the back half of the year, do you think there is some opportunity for a deceleration simply from tough comps in the second half of last year? And then just broadly speaking, you did take a modest reserve charge, but it still sounds like you still see plenty of opportunity for attractive returns into casualty re. Is it is that the case? Thanks.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Why do not I kick off here, and then you can talk about the reserves Craig? So let me start with the growth this quarter. As I said in my prepared remarks, part of that growth was business bound in prior quarters. With another part of it being the increases on those small shares that we have talked about the last little while on select key clients. Now these are clients where, you know, we are getting robust information, where we have faith in their underwriting and their claim abilities, and also clients that are keeping, you know, significant net participations on their deals. Those are the clients that we are supporting with small increases on those small shares.
The casualty rate environment in general, you know, is buoyed by concerns about economic and social inflation. Those drivers continue, you know, in the current market environment. So we believe that the conditions on casualty insurance will continue with rate increases because of those drivers remaining intact. Craig?
Craig William Howie: Yeah, Tommy, I know you asked about the reserve review outcome during the quarter. And it was-- it was only about $16 million And I have to say, 1 third of that, about $5 million, came from a additional information on 1 loss from the year 2018. And about 2 thirds of that review came from the years 2022 with the outcome of the deep dive into our casualty reserves given the current market environment including inflation, including economic inflation and inflation, This charge was pretty modest, $16 million on a $5 billion gross book of loss reserves. Is a pretty modest charge. Tells me that we feel pretty good about where we are today with our loss picks.
It also shows me that our older runoff and discontinued lines of business from the past continue to hold pretty steady. And it shows me that the latest years where we took action and we increased our loss pick in 2024, 2025, and 2026 continue to hold. And this is pretty consistent with our reserve philosophy as well. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Elise Greenspan with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
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Elise Greenspan: Hi. Thanks. Good morning. My first question is on Hamilton Select. it is been growing fast and becoming the third stool of the company. If you could just give us I guess, longer term kind of views of just growth and premiums there. And would there be any thoughts on spinning that off at some point? let me kick off at a high level on just the expansion strategy, and I will pass the baton, to Craig from there.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: So, again, as I said in the prepared remarks, this is really just a natural evolution of the strategy, which is now buoyed by the recent AM Best upgrade. We have got such an incredibly strong team, and they have such strong distribution relationships in the market that we already started seeing this type of business, and it just aligned perfectly. All the stars came together with the upgrade, with our expansion strategy, and the business coming to us for us to announce this at this time. You know, it is a soft launch, in April with the property product.
This product is focused on small to midsize risks where we are not seeing the kind of pressure, pricing pressure we are seeing in other areas, and we are going to continue to add to those over time. We do expect this to be a thoughtful growth the same way we grow the rest of our business. We You will not see too much growth on the expansion in 2026. You will see some, but we are currently hiring team leads in place then the remaining underwriters. So you will probably see more growth on the expansion strategy into 2027. Craig, do you want to take it from here?
Craig William Howie: Yeah. The only thing I would say, Elise, on top of that was select this quarter grew 18% over 18%. And then, Elise, to your specific question on whether we intend to spin it off we see select as an incredibly strategic part of our platform, it adds to the diversity and diversification of our business and, I think, makes Hamilton Group a very attractive proposition.
Elise Greenspan: Thanks. And then my second question is just on the ongoing events in The Middle East. Could you just give us a sense of whether you expect losses in future quarters? And then how much of a-- I guess, what were the Middle East opportunities to your premium growth in the second quarter?
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Alright. So why do not I kick off on this 1? Yeah. Stating the obvious here, you know, but this is an ongoing and very dynamic situation. The good news is that we have very strong underwriting expertise in the areas or in the lines of business that are affected by this conflict, be that political violence, marine energy, As a matter of fact, our underwriting expertise in certain of these classes is so recognized that we actually hold the pin on behalf of other balance sheets in the market. So we are very confident about our ability to continue to thought and judiciously underwrite risks at this time.
We are seeing significantly improved pricing terms and conditions in the marine lines, the political violence lines. Again, we are not betting the bank here, but we are going to very thoughtfully and carefully underwrite risks and take advantage of, this market opportunity. I think it is important for you to know that we do manage, you know, to these kinds of events, across our group very, carefully, and we also ensure that we have outwards in place for across all lines of business, including those that are affected by this event.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Zaremski with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Michael Zaremski: Hey. Thanks. Good morning. Maybe just back to the Hamilton Select commentary, the exciting commentary about the upgrade from AM Best. Is there a way for you to maybe just at a high level frame kind of, like, how much bigger your TAM is, or I do not know if TAM is the right, you know, way to think about it. But just you know, obviously, you talked about a lot of competition in property, which is the 1 of your new ones that just went online. So we understand that. But just curious kind of does this kind of meaningfully expand the TAM that when we think about kind of the outer year growth, we are through this property?
Cycle that it really would bend, you know, bend the growth trend line Upwards? Thanks.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Yeah. Great. I will take that. So, again, we are incredibly excited about the Hamilton Select expansion, you know, the upgrade, just basically putting us on par with a lot of the other, very recognized peers in this space and the fact that we are already seeing this business. We will continue our hard-to-place strategy. And, you know, there the average premium for the business we are writing there is about $20 thousand as average premium. With this select expansion moving into, you know, the middle market, space and looking at risks that are not hard to place, you can probably look at average premium about doubling. So that is maybe to that point.
Again, we will be rolling out classes over time. We have the property class that rolled out already. The next class to roll out is life sciences. If you wanna know about future classes, you should take a look at LinkedIn and look at the jobs that were posting.
Michael Zaremski: Understood. So, yeah, maybe that ramps up when we can kinda talk about whether the different profit margin kind of goals for that larger mid market type of business. Got it. Maybe just switching gears to technology. Just you know, a broad question, but just given the amount of change, Gen AI related, we have seen over the last 3, 6 months. Any kind of new kind of thought processes you guys are having about kind of efficiency, productivity gains, etcetera, that could move the needle in terms of either top line growth or expense ratio, etcetera, over the next year or 2?
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Sure. Happy to take that question as well. And, Craig, if you want to add on, please be my guest here. We view AI as a productivity and intelligence multiplier. And it augments our underwriters, our claims professionals, and our operations team. We are focusing on enabling. It allows our professionals to focus more on the higher value activities, like just risk selection, portfolio management, and takes away some of the more grungy, kind of work. In underwriting, we are already leveraging AI tech for example, for submission ingestion and data extraction. This accelerates the intake process and improves our data quality, and it also allows us to get to the risks, more quickly.
In this context, I have also spoken about our smart queuing technology, and that is an added bonus, actually specific to the Select platform, but we will roll it out over time. And that technology essentially floats the risks that we have analyzed, that we have a better chance of winning at to the top of the underwriter's queue, not, you know, just as they come in. It flows to the top, so we know that we have more hits at bat on risks that we are, more likely to bind. So we are incredibly excited about that.
I think at the end of the day, I think it is going to have very measurable productivity gains, operational benefits across our business.
Craig William Howie: Yes, Pina. I think the only thing to add there that there needs to be a cost benefit here. Right? The operational benefits and those productivity gains have to exceed what the technology expenses are as well.
Michael Zaremski: Exciting. Thank you.
Operator: As a reminder, please press 1 to ask a question. Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Heimerman with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Matthew Heimerman: Hi. Good morning, everybody. Just on Select, I would be curious. Can you maybe provide right now, it seems like you are going to roll out some new products and underwriting capabilities through your existing distribution partners. I am curious if once you have hired all the human capital and kind of got the support for them, whether or not a second leg to growth will be just expanding the distribution relationships on top of that. So just maybe a little bit more longer term kind of perspective on how you think about kind of stage 1, 2, 3 growth of that platform.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Sure. Happy to take that, Matthew. So we just recently on LinkedIn that we hired a responsible party for distribution at Hamilton Select, and that will do exactly that: broaden our distribution relationships. Again, over time, with the products that we are going to roll out thoughtfully over the course of this expansion strategy.
Matthew Heimerman: And is that something that happens coincident with the underwriting cap-- coincident with the underwriting talent coming through? Or is it kind of established everything through existing before you start to expand new? I recognize there is a sales cycle to that.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Yeah. So, you know, a lot of our distribution partners offer us multiple lines of business. So we already have some distribution partners that have the lines that we are rolling out into But as we expand our strategy, we will be adding new distribution partners to the mix that will specifically support the lines that we are expanding into. Okay. So we should think about that blending together over the coming years as opposed to maybe more you know, discrete beginning and endings to those growth patterns. Correct.
Matthew Heimerman: Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Alex Scott with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Alex Scott: Hey. Good morning. Wanted to ask about just some of the activity we have seen in the market. Say a couple of the larger reinsurance peers are writing combined ratios up near 100% in casualty. We are seeing some pretty heavy pruning in some of their casualty reinsurance books as well. I would just be interested in, what your take is on that. How are you avoiding the pitfalls of the market? That they are experiencing? And then maybe the flip side of it is are you seeing any opportunities for growth coming out of that? Thanks for that question.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: So just as a reminder, you know, Hamilton had a very small footprint in the casualty, reinsurance space predominantly. After we re underwrote the portfolio. And we only started growing in casualty when rates started improving. And that, we did get some opportunities when other, participants in the market who were perhaps overexposed to casualty reinsurance in the worst years. We are getting off the business to get a handle over the portfolio. And it is at that exact time that we were able to move in. And by the way, as a reminder, we also got our a rating around the same time. So that allowed us to see access to more business that we wanted to see.
So again, that explains the growth of Hamilton in the casualty space when others backed away. But, again, our growth came in a very thoughtful manner with clients that we targeted in advance, these key clients that we support across other lines of business, and it came at a time where rates were improving. Got it.
Alex Scott: that is all really helpful. Second question, maybe just on the broader market and where are you seeing the less disciplined behavior? How are you avoiding some of those things? You know, where do you see the pricing environment going from here if we keep being reasonably benign weather trends Alright.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Let me start with the broader question first. You are right. it is a very dynamic and differentiated market that we are in right now. If I just go segment by segment and I look at 1/1 renewals, you know, on the property side, we still have abundant supply. So if there is no significant losses, we do expect some pressure on pricing. However, tempering that is that we still see some new demand for property in the market, property limits, even though they are at a lesser level. On the specialty side of the business, again, we just talked about a very meaningful event in the Middle East, but we have also had aviation losses.
And do not forget the Baltimore Bridge loss was not that long ago. And because of this block of activity, we expect rates across many specialty classes to remain firm And then moving to casualty, as I said earlier, the drivers for rate increase in casualty are the inflationary pressures, social and economic, and those inflationary pressures remain and continue to buoy underlying pricing. If we see the market get more competitive, or, exhibit more pressure, we will make very strategic use of retro, on our book, both on the property and side, and, you know, we have the sidecar in place. So I think that answers the part of your question around where we see the market going.
Thank you.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Pina Albo. For closing remarks.
Giuseppina Carmela Albo: Alright then. Thank you all for joining us today. I also wanna thank our employees, our clients, our partners, and our shareholders for their continued support for Hamilton, and we look very forward to updating you again in the next quarter.
Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
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