Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (NYSE:ARGO) Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call August 9, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Andrew Hersom - Investor Relations

Tom Bradley - Executive Chairman and Interim CEO

Scott Kirk - CFO

Conference Call Participants

John Heagney - Dowling & Partners

Operator

Good morning everybody and welcome to today's Argo Group Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Drew and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instruction]

I'm now going to hand over to Andrew Hersom, Investor Relations to begin. Please go ahead.

Andrew Hersom

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to Argo Group's Conference Call for the Second Quarter ended June 30, 2022. After the market closed last night, we issued a press release on our earnings, which is available in the Investors section of our website argogroup.com and was filed with the SEC.

Presenting on the call -- today's call is Tom Bradley, Argo Group Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Kirk, Chief Financial Officer. As the operator mentioned, this call is being recorded.

During this conference call, Argo management may make comments that reflect Argo's intentions, beliefs and expectations for the future. Such forward-looking statements are qualified by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations generally and they may materially differ from the actual future results involving any one or more of such statements Argo Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements as a result of events or developments subsequent to this call. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please see Argo Group's filings with the SEC.

Also, note that we will be referencing certain non-GAAP financial information, including reconciliations thereof. More information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures is provided in our earnings release.

I'll now turn the call over to Tom.

Tom Bradley

Thank you, Andrew. And thank you to everyone for joining us today. Before getting into the results, I wanted to say it is a privilege to be appointed CEO and lead Argo and its dedicated employees forward in the company's next chapter. Together, we have transformed many aspects of the franchise over the past couple of years, positioning it well to deliver growth and profitability. As a result, I'm excited about the opportunities ahead to further enhance the company to better serve customers, expand our leadership role in the specialty insurance market and maximize value for shareholders.

Now turning to the quarter. The company's performance for the second quarter and for the first six months of the year reflects our continued execution on our strategic priorities and our focused approach to profitable growth as we successfully target business lines we view the most attractive. For the second quarter, operating earnings were $0.89 per diluted common share, benefited from positive underwriting income as we continue to achieve double-digit net earned premium growth in our ongoing business, primarily driven by increased retentions and positive rates continuing to earn through.