Selective Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGI) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 1, 2024 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Brad Wilson – Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer
John Marchioni – President and Chief Executive Officer
Tony Harnett – Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, and Interim Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Michael Phillips – Oppenheimer
Mike Zaremski – BMO
Paul Newsome – Piper Sandler
Scott Heleniak – RBC Capital Markets
Meyer Shields – KBW
Operator
Good day, everyone, and welcome to Selective Insurance Group's Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call.
At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer, Brad Wilson.
Brad Wilson
Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Selective's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. Yesterday, we posted our earnings press release and financial supplement on selective.com under the Investors section. A replay of this webcast will be available there shortly after the end of this call.
Today, we will discuss our financial performance, market conditions, and our expectations for 2024. Joining us on the call are John Marchioni, our Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tony Harnett, our Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, and Interim Chief Financial Officer. They will make remarks before we move to our Q&A session.
We're excited to welcome Tony to his first conference call since becoming Interim CFO. He's been with Selective since 1999 and has held several senior finance positions. Our commentary today includes references to non-GAAP measures, which we believe make it easier for investors to evaluate our insurance business. These non-GAAP measures include operating income, operating return on common equity, and adjusted book value per common share.
We include GAAP reconciliations to any referenced non-GAAP financial measures in the financial supplement on our website. Also, we will make statements and projections about our future performance. These forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 are not guarantees of future performance. They are subject to risks and uncertainties that we disclose in our annual, quarterly, and current reports filed with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.
With those introductory remarks, I'll now turn the call to John.
John Marchioni
Thanks, Brad, and good morning. 2023 was another excellent year for Selective. We grew net premiums written by 16%, produced a 96.5% combined ratio, increased after-tax net investment income by 33% to $310 million, and produced an operating ROE of 14.4%. Catastrophe losses ended the year approximately two points above our initial expectations, offset by a better-than-expected non-GAAP property loss ratio, improved expense ratio, and favorable prior year casualty reserve development.