Please stand by. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the RLI Corp first quarter earnings teleconference. At this time, I would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded and that all participants are in a listen-only mode. At the request of the company, we will open the conference for questions after the presentation. Before we get started, let me remind everyone that through the course of the teleconference, RLI management may make comments that reflect their intentions, beliefs, and expectations for the future. As always, these forward-looking statements are subject to certain risk factors which could cause actual results to differ materially. These risk factors are listed in the company's various SEC filings, included in the annual Form 10-K, which should be reviewed carefully.
The company has filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission that contains the press release announcing first quarter results. RLI management may make reference during the call to operating earnings and earnings per share from operations which are non-GAAP measures of financial results. RLI's operating earnings and earnings per share from operations consist of net earnings after the elimination of after-tax realized investment gains or losses. RLI's management believes this measure is useful in gauging core operating performance across reporting periods but may not be comparable to other companies' definitions of operating earnings. The Form 8-K contains reconciliation between operating earnings and net earnings. The Form 8-K and press release are available at the company's website at www.rlicorp.com. Again, at the request of the company, we will open the conference for questions and answers following the presentation.
I will now turn the conference over to RLI's Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer, Mr. John Robison. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Lisa. Thank you and good morning to everyone. Welcome to the RLI Earnings Teleconference for the first quarter of 2011. Joining me for today's call are Jonathan Michael, President and CEO of RLI Corp; Joseph Dondanville, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Mike Stone, President and Chief Operating Officer of RLI Insurance Company. The format for the call is as follows. I'll give a brief review of the financial highlights and discuss the investment portfolio. Mike Stone will talk about the quarter's operations, then we'll open the call up to questions, and Jonathan Michael will finish up with some closing comments. Our first quarter operating earnings were $1.11 per share versus $0.94 for the same period a year ago. Included in this quarter's earnings are $10.5 million in pre-tax favorable development and prior year loss reserves, which came from all segments.
The combined ratio for the first quarter was 83.6%. Gross written premiums were slightly higher year-over-year at $143 million. While the premiums in our general liability book of business declined, we were able to offset this decline by new product initiatives like crop and our geographical footprint expansions, such as surety. Comprehensive earnings were $31.7 million for the quarter, or $1.49 per share. We had operating cash flows of nearly $18 million for the quarter. Book value per share increased 3% to $38.94 per share, with shareholders' equity at nearly $820 million. Turning to the share repurchase program, we have $94.1 million remaining on our share repurchase program as no shares were purchased in the first quarter. We paid a special dividend of $7 in late December and have been accumulating cash to close on our CBIC transactions.
We continually review our capital position in relation to our needs and opportunities. Our first choice is to deploy our excess capital. When we cannot find suitable opportunities to enhance shareholder value, we return it. Speaking of CBIC, we expect to close this transaction at the end of this month, pending final approvals. We are excited to begin the formal integration of this organization into RLI and look forward to welcoming the talented associates and agents to RLI. Turning to the investment portfolio. As of March 31, our overall allocation was 76% in fixed income, 18% in equities, 6% in short-term investments. The only significant change from year-end is our accumulation of cash. Once again, that is to support the acquisition of CBIC. The total return on our investment portfolio for the first quarter was 1.6%. The bond portfolio returned 0.8% in the quarter, while equities were up 5.7%.
We had no OTTI charges for the quarter. Investment income is down roughly 2% on lower invested assets and a lower reinvestment rate. Our duration is roughly 4.9 and our portfolio quality is AA. The equity markets posted one of the strongest first-quarter returns in history. The risk trade was on as equities surged higher in the first quarter while bonds simply clipped coupons. Inflation expectations have increased over the past few weeks due to rising commodity prices, which were up 10% year to date. While excluded from core inflation, higher food and energy prices certainly diminish a consumer's disposable income. This has made for a more volatile interest rate environment as yields on the 10-year treasury range from 3.17%-3.74% during the quarter. We still have concerns over the economic recovery. Consumer spending remains weak and housing continues to languish.
While we have seen improvement in the unemployment rate, are we really creating jobs or is the labor force declining? Geopolitical fears as well as the lingering financial crisis in Europe continue to weigh on investor confidence. In addition, major rating agencies are now taking a hard look at U.S. debt levels and voicing concerns that the plans in Washington appear to be inadequate in addressing the mounting debt levels. The big question that is yet to be answered: can this economy stand on its own after the Fed ends QE2 sometime in June? On the fixed income side, we continue to look for defensive structures, securities that will offer more protection in a rising rate environment, which we believe is coming. On the equity side, we focus on high-quality names that offer yield and lower betas to reduce our overall volatility.
For the operations highlights, I will now turn the call over to Mike Stone. Mike?
Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. A few market highlights. First, a very good underwriting quarter for us, off to a good 2011. Overall, pricing continues to experience moderate decreases, I think bumping along the bottom, frankly. Obviously, significant property cats over the last six months, including the significant loss in Japan. Our exposure is around $1 million, we believe, all out of our marine business. RMS, the cat modeling company, made a version change in the quarter, which is roiling the property market. Basically, the wind changes. Even with the cats and the RMS version change, a little price movement in the property segment, but it's still very early. Casualty, no impact from the cats as it continues to drift downward. Now look at our casualty segment. We are down 4% in the quarter. Rates are pretty flat overall.
We are giving up market share as we bide our time and work diligently on selection at this stage in the market. New products, specifically design professionals, grew some $2 million, which in a quarter, helping to offset the decline in our general liability and our Executive Products product lines. We continue to add product. We added a uninsured motorist segment to our PUP product in the quarter. We're rolling out our Pro-Pak and ProComp in our design professionals. We continue to look to build out our product portfolio. Our construction activity still dormant, but we are seeing some signs of improvement. Certainly, CBIC, when we get it closed, should be a shot in the arm, particularly with our package product. Optimistic that casualty rates will not decrease significantly going forward. As I said, I think we are bumping along the bottom, waiting for some form of catalyst.
Our property segment, gross written premium up 12%, rates flat to down just a small percentage. Cat rates mixed. Wind's probably up a little bit and earthquake down a little bit. Marine business up 15% in the quarter. Our re-underwriting of that space is complete. Trajectory's good. Still work to do, but promising outlook. Our home office reinsurance initiatives up 22% in the quarter. That includes our crop business and some assumed treaty business. As I mentioned earlier, about $1 million in marine losses from Japan. Only product line reporting are expecting any loss from the foreign cats. Expect some moderate loss from the North Carolina tornadoes. It's a second quarter event, but it would be a fairly small loss for us. The version change on the cat model, Florida winds up 50-plus % for the market.
The market is showing some signs of price movement, but, like I said, it's still early. In our surety business, gross written premiums up 2%, our rates flat. Experience continues to be better than expected. There's been no adverse development in the contract segment from the economic slowdown, but we continue to be vigilant here. Certainly, surety is looking forward to the integration of the CBIC surety business, which hopefully will begin here early in the second quarter. Overall, good underwriting quarter. Underwriters being appropriately selective as we continue to scour for the better opportunities. Standard lines companies still aggressive. Construction activity still moribund, but seeing some life in New England and Texas, but Florida and California, very weak. Property improving. Considerable activity with the cats and the model changes. Our mix continues to shift from casualty.
Right now, our casualty business is about 45% of our business, property's 40%, and surety's 15%. Compare that to 2005, when our casualty business was 70%, property 20%, and surety 10%. Overall, our business model is built to flex as needed, and we continue to build out our product portfolio. Unlike some others, we're not waiting for a turn, but continuing to find and look for good opportunities. I think you'll see by our revenue, our gross written premiums performance in the quarter, that we are doing pretty well given the state of the market. That's all.
Thank you, Mike. I'd like to open the call up to questions now.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question today, please press star one on your touch-tone telephone. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, that is star one if you have a question today. We'll take our first question from Douglas Miehm with RBC Capital Markets.
Hi, good morning. I just had two questions. The first, taking a look at your, for the quarter, your accident, your loss ratios have actually showed some improvement in most of your lines. Not a huge improvement, but still, considering where the pricing trends are going, that was, I guess, a pleasant surprise. I think it may have been the case in the fourth quarter as well. Can you, I guess, explain how it's developed? Is it solely due to, I guess, better underwriting decisions? Is it some of it business mix?
Is some of it, maybe especially in the longer tail lines, any kind of shift in actuarial assumptions where you say, "Well, loss experience continues to be so good that we've been overly conservative on past loss picks." Maybe we kind of have to back off a little bit on our current loss picks just because of big picture actuarial trends. It's a complicated question, but just seeing if you could give me some help on that.
It's Jonathan Michael. It's all of the above. All of that goes into the loss picks. Our experience, as it develops, influences the loss picks. Probably the biggest influencer, though, is the mix of business that we have. It's all of the above, and I couldn't tell you the degree to which all of those influenced our current action here. A lot of it is the mix of business.
Okay. Thanks for that answer. My follow-up question is regarding earthquakes. Obviously, they've been in the news, and we've heard in the media and anecdotal accounts of a lot more, I would just say, submission activity in California as people are waking up to the fact that they're not covered for earthquakes, and they just saw a $100 billion event in Japan. Are you seeing that? At the same time, you said that their rates are about flat, maybe down a bit. Are you seeing this increase in submissions or increase in demand? Do you think it would appreciably influence pricing in that line?
Yes, Mike Stone. Certainly it's early from a pricing perspective. Yeah, we are seeing increased submission activity. I think you're right. I think people understand that there's a possibility of earthquakes in California. We would expect the demand to increase. What we are also seeing is when they see what the price is, they're not buying. We're not seeing a whole lot of increased premium as a result. I do think rates will go up as the year progresses as people better understand the catastrophe risk associated with the earthquake and also the increased activity. Yes, increased submission right now but not a whole lot of additional premium because people are, again, don't like the price.
Okay, thanks. That's all my questions.
Up next, we'll go to Kenneth Billingsley, BGB Securities.
Hi. Good morning, congratulations on the quarter.
Good morning.
Just on the retention standpoint, I was looking at, obviously, I'm talking about from gross premiums versus net premiums written. It looks like the retentions are up. Is that going to be a trend that we're likely going to see as potentially reinsurance costs rise? Is that something that's a strategy because of the market itself or opportunities that you see in the mix of your business?
Ken, thanks for the question. It's in part the latter, the opportunities. On the property side, the growth in marine and growth on the crop business and the property treaty business are lines in which we have larger retentions on. Surety, I think what you see there is just improved reinsurance cost on our part. Then casualty, it's primarily mix, and that's pretty flat. Mix is changing that.
What type of impact do you see on your book based on, obviously, the market trends and that this was maybe more of a reinsurance event, a lot of these cats, as opposed to domestic here impact. What kind of impact do you see that being on future reinsurance rates for your business, even in non-property areas?
Well, a majority of our reinsurance is renewed 1/1, and so we would see, I think, a fairly consistent reinsurance cost throughout 2011 as our treaties renewed at or slightly favorable results as of 1/1.
Well, Ken, this is Mike Stone. Just to amplify that, I do believe reinsurance rates are going to go up. I think that we are fortunate that we renewed our property treaties at 1/1. I suspect that the 6/1s and the 7/1s are going to see some rate increase. If we don't, we're really in a crazy business.
Very good. From a competition standpoint, I know you gave some color on rates and where you're seeing some of the direction there. Can you talk about the impact of renewal business versus new business and the competition for that? Obviously, you're letting some business go on, I believe, casualty lines. Can you just talk about where you're seeing competition between renewal and new business and whether it's pricing specific or coverage related?
That's Mike Stone. It's mostly pricing, Ken. I think what we continue to see is, by and large, the competition is the standard lines companies are taking a bigger hunk of the specialty space, packaging up business that wasn't packaged before. Oftentimes, our broker's not even seeing the business. That doesn't get away from the independent agents or the big brokers. It's price, it's standard lines companies. I think by and large, the E&S and specialty space is fairly disciplined here. Until we see some change from that and some increased economic activity, it's hard to see a lot of market movement.
In your case, since it's not leaving the independent, it's even hard to even quote on some of that renewal business. You're not even getting a shot at some of it?
Some of we don't get a shot at. Obviously, the renewal business is stuff that we fight awful hard to keep because we know it better. It's been seasoned to some degree. New business is more difficult. I think if you'll listen to the brokers, certainly the wholesalers and the specialty brokers, they are struggling, as is the specialty market space.
On that renewal business, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but in some cases, we've heard that in the past few quarters that renewal business, there's been some success in pushing some rate increases or holding the line there, where it wasn't necessarily with new. Are you having that same experience, or is your model a little different?
I'm more than happy for you to put words in my mouth if it means rates are going up. I think by and large that we're getting a little rate in various segments of our business. Certainly, we've lost share. Some of that's because we have pushed price. I think we're seeing a little opportunity in some spots.
Great. Last question. On the reserve releases, what years were some of the bulk of those reserve releases coming from?
Yeah. It's Joe Dondanville, Bill. On the casualty side, the bulk was 2006-2009. On the property side, we had some marine 2005-2009, crop is 2010. Surety is 2008-2010. It's more of the past three to five years.
Okay. On the casualty side, the longer tail stuff, not much is coming out of 2010 already. It's mostly 2006 and 2009?
Right.
Through 2009?
Yeah.
Great. Well, congratulations on the quarter. Thanks for taking my questions.
Our next question today comes from Vincent D'Agostino, Stifel Nicolaus.
Hi, good morning. Just two quick questions. In terms of the expense ratio, is there any details that you could provide in terms of what's driving that since it's a few points higher than recent quarters? I guess if there's any sort of seasonality that we should bake into our expectations since I guess it was more in line with 1Q 2010. Thanks.
Expense ratio. The expense ratio is in part driven based off of overall results. As the results improved in the first quarter of this year, we see higher bonus accruals as well as retirement and profit-sharing accruals. The other component in this particular quarter has to do with costs associated with the CBIC transaction in trying to bring it to head, get all the appropriate approvals. That was about a $300,000 impact to the first quarter.
Okay, great. I guess for John, looking at the equity portfolio. If I'm doing the math right, it looks like RLI sold about $5 million in equities since the equity portfolio is up about 5.7%, but the balance sheet's only showing about 4.1% increase. Is there anything in your outlook that has changed since, I think, the commentary last quarter indicated a little bit more bullishness in terms of reaching the 20% equity mix target? Or is it just that the dividends aren't necessarily being reinvested in equities? Thank you.
Yeah. Right now, we've kind of changed our outlook a little bit over the last three months with some of the activity we're seeing in the economic news. You've even seen a lot of economists reduce their GDP forecast from 4% in the first quarter to 2%, giving some of the economic data that's come in from housing to durable goods, et cetera. We still target 20% over the long run. We haven't reinvested our dividends as of late because we're raising money again to acquire CBIC. 20% is our long-term outlook, and that'll fluctuate quarter to quarter depending on market activity and what we have going on from an insurance operations thing.
All right. Thanks. That's all I have.
Our next question today comes from Dean Evans, KBW.
Thanks, guys. I was first wondering if you could maybe sort of revisit CBIC a bit. I know you've given some color on previous conference calls. I was wondering if we can kind of get an update of what your thoughts are as you do integrate it going forward, what we can expect to see, sort of how it breaks out by segment, how to think about modeling it, I guess, in your current segments. Any sort of additional color you could help us with there?
It's Mike Stone. Hopefully, we'll get this thing closed in the next few weeks. They're a good underwriting company, like we are. The casualty business of the package business, which basically casualty, is declining, as you would expect. Surety business is holding up pretty good. I think the historical stuff on CBIC is fairly accurate going forward. Probably a little decline in their premium by the time we get a hold of it. I think that's it.
It's about half and half between surety and casualty, if I remember correctly?
Roughly.
Okay. Sort of moving on to a different area. The property growth, I know one area you had mentioned was marine. Anything else that we're seeing in there? Any new products or sort of what's driving that segment other than, I guess, what you mentioned?
Well, we have some crop in there, a little bit of growth there. We have our reinsurance operation, a little growth there, both the facultative side and assumed treaty business. That's basically what's driving that. The E&S property's about flat. The big product in that space.
Okay. I guess lastly, if I could real quick. I know you sort of hit on it in the beginning that your preference is to deploy capital into the business. Given the opportunities you see today, could you sort of refresh us with your thoughts on repurchases or capital management, particularly with the current valuation of the shares?
Yeah. We paid that $7 dividend at the end of the year. We did not repurchase any shares during the first quarter as we were holding cash for the CBIC acquisition. Our position is still that we would rather use the capital in the business and deploy it ourselves. Short of that, we will return it to the shareholders. I won't give an opinion on relative positioning or returning of our capital at 1.5 times book versus book value or below. Certainly, we'll return it if we don't need it. It is what it is.
Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate the call.
Next up, we'll hear from Bijan Moazami, FBR Capital Markets. Bijan, your line is open. Please check your mute function. Hearing no response, we'll take our next question from Vinay Misquith, Credit Suisse.
Hi, good morning. Just wondered some color on the competitive landscape. Just looking at this quarter maybe versus the last quarter, has there been some sort of leveling off of the competitive dynamic?
It's Mike Stone. Yeah. The rate competition is probably less than it was last quarter. It's still not improving. That being the proxy for competitive dynamics, yeah, it's probably a little less competitive today than it was last quarter, but it's still competitive.
All right. Fair enough. Why do you think it's getting less competitive? Are the cash flows getting worse than they were before, or are loss cost trends? Because loss cost trends seem to be pretty favorable. Just trying to get a sense for why this is happening.
Well, I think we're in, what? The sixth year of a softening market. While you're right, loss trends are more favorable than they have been. It's still giving up a lot of rate over the last five or six years. At some point, people start saying, "I'm not sure we can keep doing this." You will also see that there's a number of companies that have added to their reserves. You will also see that property losses have been fairly significant over the last couple of quarters. I think those dynamics weigh into the overall p syche of the market, and the competition. I'm not surprised that things are bumping along a bottom right now, less competitive than it was last quarter. We'll see. We'll see which direction it goes.
The other thing that occurs is that the fourth quarter tends to be more competitive than the first three quarters, too.
Sure
Our opinion is we had a bit of a bounce in the first quarter in terms of less competition. Probably doesn't mean all that much in the scheme of things. It's still very competitive.
Sure. Fair enough. On the cat exposed property, I believe you said that it's too early to tell about what's going to happen. What are the discussions that you're having with your clients, with brokers in terms of pricing on cat exposed property?
We're talking about raising them. We have to watch our overall exposure. When you have those kind of events, you have to reevaluate your positions. When you have a catastrophe model change of this significance, you have to look at your overall tolerances. Certainly, if we can't get price, we're going to reduce our exposure one way or the other, but we're going to get some price in the process. I think the market will allow that going forward, given what's going on. Those are the discussions. Whether it holds or not, obviously, we can't make the market ourselves. We'll see. Again, like I said earlier, if you can't get price after all of this business is even crazier than I thought it was.
Some have argued that the economic conditions are not that great, it's difficult to put through small rate increases. Have you got some sort of pushback? What sort of reception are you getting from your clients in terms of rates?
Well, they don't like it. The brokers are pushing the other way. What's our combined ratio for the quarter? Again, people look at that and say, "Well, you don't need more rate." It's that kind of discussion. That's what's going on right now. There's no clear direction on which way it will end up. Certainly, given what we see, what it looks like, exposures have increased. We believe that we need to get paid for that exposure. I think the market, the brokers, and the customers are pushing back because results have been pretty good.
Right. Just one last follow-up. You mentioned something about California and people sort of maybe seeking some more insurance and not buying some because of rate. Do you get a sense that your clients, in general, are more attuned to the catastrophe environment and therefore looking maybe on the margin to buy more? Or are they quite happy to sort of sit on the sidelines saying that the economy is weak and we'd rather not spend more money on insurance?
Again, I don't think there's one answer to that.
I think that depends on the customer. Certainly, there is more interest in catastrophe-exposed business given what we have witnessed over the last couple of quarters. Some are buying, and some aren't. Some recoil from the price, and some don't. Again, I don't think there's any clear direction at this stage. Like I said, I think it's trying to find a spot.
Okay. That's great. Thank you very much for the answers.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, it's star one if you have a question today. Up next, we'll go to Ron Bobman of Capital Returns.
Hi, I had a couple of questions. With respect to your crop business, I think it's, in some respect, structured as a reinsurance transaction. The root of my question is, any thoughts to hedging some of the added risk associated with the fact that we're starting out the sort of crop measurement season with such high commodity prices as far as the, I guess, going in sort of reference price levels? That was my first question.
This is Aaron Diefenthaler. We've looked at the possibility of hedging in the past, we think that the underlying economics associated with crop prices right now bodes well for continued higher crop prices. Inventories to start the year are low. Unless there's some significant over-planning that would take place, we don't see that as a need at this point based on the size of our exposure.
Okay, thanks. My second question is, I forgot which of you made the comment as far as talking about the pricing cycle and where we are and what's going on with pricing. I think someone said from RLI on today's call that we're sort of waiting for, I guess, another catalyst or a catalyst for change to occur, I guess ceasing bouncing across the bottom. I'm wondering, is it possible that in effect, the catalyst has already occurred, it just takes time, in effect, for the declines to cease occurring, followed by the flat period of bouncing across the bottom?
like you said, the market will allow you believe, your customers will allow you to sort of get some rate increases, we're just into that continuum, there really isn't necessarily a catalyst in the traditional sense as far as seeing something in the newspaper or a company folding or something along those lines? Thanks.
Yeah. I'll try that one. This is Mike Stone again. You're analogizing the industry as kind of like a punch-drunk fighter, we can't wake up yet from the last punch. When we do, we'll raise rates. I guess that's possible. Certainly, we haven't seen any dramatic swing from the events that have already occurred. I do believe that pricing rates are bumping along the bottom, though I'm also a believer that we don't stay in stasis. It moves one direction or the other. I would suspect that the next move will be up. I think other industry experts, I shouldn't say other, I don't include myself in there, so industry experts-
Uh-oh, because we do.
Have been predicting a change for a while, they have proven wrong each time. I do believe that's why I say, we're looking for a catalyst. We're looking for something. You have to balance that against results have been pretty good. Until some of the standard lines companies, some of the major players, start seeing unfavorable results, it's hard to see prices swinging dramatically to the upside.
All right, thanks. Gentlemen, you've definitely earned the title industry expert with your consistent, long-standing results. Hope it continues.
Thank you. I reserve that for John.
We'll take the next question from Bijan Moazami.
I apologize. My line was on mute. Most of my questions were asked and answered, but a couple items. First of all, if you see a dramatic increase in your reinsurance prices on 1/1, how quickly you can transfer these prices to your primary layers?
It's Mike Stone. We can move pretty quickly. We quote business out 60 days, but it shortens when there are fairly dramatic changes. We'll shorten that up pretty quickly. We can move pretty fast.
Are you going to try to move the prices up before your reinsurance renewal comes due?
Hey, Bijan, we're always trying. We've just been fairly unsuccessful over the last few years. Certainly, we're going to push cat rates, starting now. On our casualty business, it's been fairly soft. We've given up quite a bit of share because we're trying to hold on to rate. We will continue to do that. We want to be in good shape when there is a swing. We want our products positioned to be able to move fairly nimbly when there is a change. Like I said, everybody's sitting around waiting for a change. Change doesn't happen because everybody's ready. Somebody has to get hurt, and that hasn't happened yet.
Okay. Mike, could you comment a little bit on the terms and conditions on your casualty business? How was it in 2010? How is it right now in 2011? Are you seeing a lot of changes in that going forward? Nobody's talking about terms and conditions anymore.
Yeah, Bijan, I think the big change in terms and conditions really comes from the fact that a lot of the businesses in the standard line space, they're fairly set. They don't have all the exclusions that we might have. They might not have the limitations that we might have in our products because they are admitted products. Other than that, at least in our competitive environment with other specialty and surplus lines companies, I don't see a lot of terms and conditions changing. In property, maybe deductibles are not as high as they were four or five years ago, we don't see that deteriorating like you had in prior soft markets. All in all, I think when you look at terms and conditions, you got to look at the business in the standard line space versus what's in our space. That's the big change.
Great. Thank you.
A final reminder to the phone audience, it's star one if you have a question. We'll take a follow-up from Vincent D'Agostino.
Thanks. Just curious, sorry if I missed it. How much did new products contribute to gross written premiums in the quarter?
Yeah, that's Jonathan Michael here. It was about $20 million of the premium for the quarter.
Just one follow-up. Anything on the horizon in terms of crop insurance legislation coming from the government that could impact the crop business?
Well, certainly, with the government, particularly in today's environment, anything could happen, but there's nothing on the horizon that would say that they're going to make a significant change to the crop program.
All right. Thanks.
Everyone, at this time, there are no further questions. I'll turn the conference back over to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks.
Thank you. It's John Michael. We had a really good quarter. We're proud of our people, our underwriters, and everybody, our producers. Mike indicated the market continues to be soft for our business as capital remains at a very high level in spite of the numerous cat events that we had worldwide. Mike talked a little bit about expectations for what the change to one of the leading modelers, RMS, has made, particularly with respect to wind business. It did have a surprising impact, I think, on companies' loss expectations in the event of a southeast wind or southwest wind storm. We think that's going to have some impact on reinsurance rates in the future and ultimately primary rates as companies fold that into their modeling and their underwriting.
As a previous questioner, Ron, asked about new products, we're proud that $20 million of the $143 million of premium that we produced during the quarter was from new products, and we'll continue to look for those new opportunities. We are excited about the CBIC acquisition and look forward to getting that transaction closed. We're really looking forward to working with CBIC's customers, their producers, and all the CBIC employees as we move forward through the rest of the year in the integration process. We do remain well-positioned, continue to perform well in spite of a soft insurance market and a troubled economy in the U.S. and worldwide. I'll tell you, we'll remain disciplined as always and look forward to talking to you all again next quarter. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude