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Text: The Everest executives leading today's call are Juan Andrade, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mark Kociancic, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
We are also joined by other members of the Everest management team.
Management comments regarding estimates, projections and similar are subject to the risks, uncertainties and assumptions as noted in these filings.
Management may also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures.
For nearly 50 years, Everest has been a source of strength for our customers.
This has never been more important than in today's public health, economic, social and natural catastrophe-impacted environment.
Our business is running smoothly.
And our people continue to demonstrate the passion, professionalism and resilience that differentiates Everest.
I am particularly proud of Everest recently being named by Business Insurance as one of the best places to work in 2020, a meaningful achievement in the current environment.
The economic recovery is uneven, and there was significant natural catastrophe activity in the quarter.
Despite this, Everest has continued to grow and generate operating profit.
Our broadly diversified Reinsurance and Insurance franchise, our financial strength, deep distribution relationships and our focus on providing solutions to our customers represent the foundation that position us well for the strength we see in the reinsurance and Insurance Markets today.
In addition, we have added two exceptionally talented and seasoned global executives to our management team.
Mark Kociancic, our new Group Chief Financial Officer, joins us from SCOR, where he was the group CFO since 2013.
Jim Williamson, our new Group Chief Operating Officer, joins us from Chubb.
Both of these executives have made an immediate impact to Everest.
Craig has played an important role in the growth and evolution of Everest.
Craig will remain with the company until the end of 2020 to assist Mark with a smooth and seamless transition.
We have also further fortified our already strong capital base with a $1 billion senior notes offering completed on October 7.
This is very efficient long-term 30-year capital at a low 3.5% coupon.
As I said in the second quarter earnings call, we have the capital to play offense in this improving market, and we also have capital flexibility.
We chose to exercise some of this flexibility opportunistically, given the state of credit markets and the low borrowing rates available.
We will seek to deploy these proceeds as favorable market opportunities continue to develop and in support of our overall strategy to grow book value over time.
Our already strong company is now even stronger.
Everest's strength is evidenced by our third quarter results for the group, where despite the high frequency of natural catastrophe activity, we achieved 16% gross written premium growth and improved attritional combined ratio of 85.8%, excluding cat and pandemic impacts, net investment income of $234 million, operating income profit of $97 million, net income of $243 million, book value per share growth of 7% from year-end 2019 or 9% adjusted for dividends, and a record shareholders' equity of $9.6 billion.
Our growth in the quarter stems from a combination of new business opportunities, improved rate levels and high retention rates on our existing book.
The underwriting loss for the quarter was driven by the previously announced $300 million in catastrophe losses.
This is in the context of an estimated $35 billion industry loss in the third quarter.
We also added $125 million to our COVID-19 loss provision, reflecting the ongoing nature of this event and our prudent reserving philosophy.
This provision is predominantly IBNR.
Excluding catastrophes and the pandemic impact, our attritional combined ratios for the group in each of our segments, Reinsurance at 83% and Insurance at 94%, improved year-over-year and are reflective of the earnings generating power of the Everest franchise.
Underwriting profitability remains at the core of everything we do.
On a nine-month year-to-date basis, Everest has grown 15% and delivered an 88% attritional combined ratio, excluding the pandemic impact.
Everest Reinsurance had 20% quarterly growth year-over-year.
We executed our strategies to underwrite a high-performing book of business with higher economic returns and lower volatility.
We executed on reinsurance opportunities in several classes, including facultative risk, Property & Casualty and in certain territories, including the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
Traditional capital from highly rated carriers, like Everest, has become more relevant and supply is tight.
We see the favorable pricing environment continuing for the foreseeable future.
We also continue to be disciplined and rigorously evaluate each transaction.
John Doucette is available to provide additional details on market conditions during the Q&A.
Everest Insurance had solid execution in the quarter with continued underlying margin improvement over 2019 and 6% growth year-over-year, despite exposure reductions in certain lines given the current economic environment.
The attritional combined ratio, excluding the pandemic impact, improved to 94% for the quarter compared to 96% in the third quarter of 2019.
We are strategically managing the Insurance portfolio to build a more diversified business and steer our mix toward product lines that earn higher margins over the long term.
Our significant position in both E&S and Retail channels give us access to a wide set of opportunities.
For the quarter, the main insurance growth drivers were continued rate momentum of plus 19% excluding workers' compensation, and plus 13% including workers' compensation.
We had strong growth across property, excess casualty and D&O, where market capacity is constrained and we are seeing the strongest rate increases and better terms.
We had continued strength in the excess and surplus line space.
And we also had strong renewal retention in both our Retail and E&S businesses.
Mike Karmilowicz is available to provide additional details on market conditions during the Q&A.
Regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the $125 million loss provision in the third quarter was comprised of $110 million for Reinsurance and $15 million for Insurance.
Our overall COVID-19 loss provision year-to-date is $435 million, of which 85% is IBNR.
Consistent with our analytical rigor, we continue to take a measured approach to our COVID-19 loss estimation that is based on credible, fact-based and supportable information.
We instituted a thorough loss estimation process at the start of the pandemic.
It is conducted team by team and contract by contract.
As events unfold and more data becomes available, we are continuously testing our estimates.
The claims data we're seeing is consistent with our expectations.
It is also important to reiterate that as a reinsurer, our analysis is specific to each situation.
And similar to reserving, we have established an equally prudent and rigorous claims process.
We evaluate claims presented based on existing policy and contract terms and conditions.
Lastly, we remain comfortable with the exposure and loss reserves in our Mortgage business in the context of the ongoing economic uncertainty from the pandemic.
In summary, Everest continued to perform well in the third quarter despite the uncertainty in the world today.
We continue to purposely seek the best opportunities to write business at attractive returns.
We have a talented team, a diversified global platform and a strong capital position, all of which allows us to provide attractive solutions to our clients and capture the improving opportunities in front of us.
I am very excited to be joining the great team here at Everest with its excellent talent base and culture.
I look forward to contributing to the company's continuing growth and success.
I think my industry experience and skill sets will be assets to further augment the great foundation that has been built here at Everest.
Everest delivered a strong set of financial results for the third quarter of 2020.
We achieved significant net income and positive operating income, continued our growth into favorable market conditions and strengthened our already robust capital position.
For the third quarter of 2020, Everest reported strong net income of $243 million.
This is more than double the $104 million of net income for the third quarter of 2019.
On a year-to-date basis, net income was $451 million compared to $792 million for the first nine months of 2019.
Year-to-date, net income included $67 million of net after-tax realized capital gains compared to $90 million in the first nine months of 2019.
Third quarter results were driven by strong premium growth across the group, strong investment income performance and improved attritional loss and combined ratios.
We also had Q3 catastrophe activity of $300 million, pre-tax and net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums.
And we added $125 million COVID-19 pandemic loss provision.
Year-to-date, our COVID-19 provision stands at $435 million.
And as Juan stated, it's predominantly IBNR.
The group experienced an underwriting loss in Q3 of $115 million due to the elevated level of natural catastrophes in the quarter as compared to an underwriting loss of $28 million in 2019.
Turning to Everest's market position and growth.
On a year-to-date basis, gross written premium was $7.7 billion, up $1 billion or 15% compared to the first three quarters of 2019.
This reflects balanced and diversified growth in both segments, with Reinsurance up 15% and Insurance up 15% compared to last year.
During the third quarter of 2020, the company reported $300 million of catastrophe losses.
These losses are pre-tax and net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums and related to Hurricanes Laura, Isaias, Sally; wildfires in California and Oregon; and other events including the Midwest United States derecho windstorm.
The after-tax basis amount was approximately $240 million.
On a year-to-date basis, the results reflected net pre-tax and net of reinstatement catastrophe losses of $345 million compared to $335 million during the first nine months of 2019.
Excluding catastrophe losses and the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, the comparable combined ratios were 85.8% for Q3 2020 and 87.1% for Q3 2019, an 88% through the first nine months of 2020 and 87.7% for the first nine months of 2019, mostly attributable to the Reinsurance business mix changes.
Excluding the pandemic loss estimate, the group attritional loss ratio for the third quarter of 2020 was 59.3%, down from 59.7% compared to Q3 2019.
Excluding the pandemic loss estimate, the group attritional loss ratio for the first nine months of 2020 was 60.2%, up from 59.5% for the first nine months of 2019, primarily due to the continued change in Reinsurance business mix year-over-year.
For the Reinsurance segment, the Q3 2020 attritional loss ratio, excluding the pandemic loss estimate, was 57.5%, essentially flat from 57.6% in Q3 2019.
Year-to-date, it stood at 58.5%, excluding the pandemic loss, up from 57.5% for the first nine months of 2019.
This increase was related to the continued shift toward more pro rata business, which carries a higher loss pick versus excess of loss, but allows us to benefit directly from the firming primary market.
The Reinsurance division has $323 million of year-to-date operating profitability, given its $294 million of year-to-date net investment income.
For the Insurance segment, the Q3 2020 attritional loss ratio, excluding the impacts from the pandemic, was 64.8%, down from 65.9% in Q3 2019.
Year-to-date, it stood at 65.2%, down compared to 65.6% for the first nine months of 2019.
Our U.S. franchise, which makes up the majority of our Insurance business, continues to run an attritional combined ratio in the low 90s, excluding the pandemic loss estimate.
The Insurance division has $62 million of year-to-date operating profitability, given its $126 million of year-to-date net investment income.
The Q3 group commission ratio of 20.2% was down compared to the prior year Q3 level of 23.3%.
This was driven by business mix and Reinsurance, notably more facultative business written and earned, and also higher ceding commission received in the Insurance segment.
The group commission ratio of 21.7% year-to-date was down compared to the prior year figure of 23%, largely due to the same reasoning.
The group expense ratio remains low at 6.1% for the first nine months of 2020, in line with our expectations.
Q3 investment income increased strongly to $234 million versus $181 million for Q3 2019.
For investments, pre-tax investment income was $420 million year-to-date as compared to $501 million for the first nine months of 2019.
The fixed income portfolio generated $408 million of investment income year-to-date compared to $383 million for the same period last year.
As expected, net investment income increased substantially as we recorded $89 million quarter-to-date of largely fair market value adjustments of our limited partnership investments in this line.
The limited partnership result was due to the impact of improvement in the economy and financial markets.
As a reminder, we report our limited partnership income one quarter in arrears.
The pre-tax yield to maturity on the investment portfolio was 3.1%, diminishing from 3.4% one year ago.
We continue to hold a well-diversified, high credit quality bond portfolio with conservative duration at approximately 3.5 years.
The current overall fixed income reinvestment yields are averaging approximately 2%.
Other income and expense included $38 million of foreign exchange gains during the first nine months of 2020 compared to a loss of $44 million for 2019.
Regarding income taxes, our effective tax rate on operating income was minus 0.1% through Q3.
There is a year-to-date tax benefit of $31 million related to the CARES Act that we reported in the first quarter.
Excluding this benefit, the effective tax rate on year-to-date operating income would be 8.9%.
Along with growth and profitability, positive cash flow was a highlight this quarter as we generated record operating cash flows of approximately $1.1 billion for the third quarter of 2020 compared to $633 million in Q3 2019, reflecting the strength of the growth in premiums in 2020 compared to 2019.
Everest has a strong balance sheet, which was endorsed by the market with our very attractively received debt raise during October.
Everest solidified its very strong capital position in the aforementioned opportunistic $1 billion senior notes offering in early October with a low coupon of 3.5% and 30-year tenure under very favorable market conditions.
This represents very efficient long-term capital for Everest.
The debt leverage ratio pro forma for Q3 stands at 15.1%.
Shareholders' equity for the group was $9.6 billion at the end of the third quarter, up from $9.1 billion at year-end 2019.
The increase in shareholders' equity in the first nine months of 2020 is largely due to the $451 million of net income; the mark-to-market impact on the fixed income assets, which increased by $349 million from December 31, 2019 plus $387 million of paid dividends and share buybacks.
Net book value per share stood at $239.98, up 7% from year-end 2019, or plus 9.3% when adjusted for dividends.
Again, I'm very excited about the future of Everest and the opportunity to further help drive its performance off a strong base.

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qtrly gross written premium of $2.8 billion, reflecting growth of 16% over same quarter in 2019.

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