Old Republic International Corporation (NYSE:ORI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt Carletti: Okay, very helpful. And then maybe sticking with numbers, I noticed the kind of interest and other cost lines stepped up a few million this quarter. Is there something one-time in there or is that something more trendable?

Frank Sodaro: I’ll continue with this one also. There is a one-time event in there, little more than half of that increase that we would not expect to happen again, but the rest of it is just slightly elevated. There’s nothing alarming there, though. A relatively small number.

Matt Carletti: Okay. All right, perfect. And then maybe last question if I can on Title. It sounds like, this quarter, the kind of headwinds in commercial, down 37%, were pretty commensurate with what you’re seeing in residential. Has that been the case in prior quarters? I can’t recall if you gave the numbers or not, but as we think about maybe Q1, Q4, has kind of the commercial headwinds caught up to kind of the residential market, or have they been commensurate for the past few quarters all long?

Craig Smiddy: Carolyn, I’m happy to start. I think there is some catch-up here. I think in our – my recollection of our prior quarters was that commercial was still coming in strong. And this quarter, we saw it catch-up, to use your words, is my initial reaction. But, Carolyn, again here too, you’re closer to the action. So I’ll turn it to you.

Carolyn Monroe: You’re right, Craig. This is the first quarter that it really caught up to residential. But one thing you have to remember with us is that, because so much of our revenue comes from our agents, we also have that lag of agency reporting. So that’s why you see a lot of it this quarter as well.

Matt Carletti: That makes sense. Fantastic. Thank you very much for the color. I really appreciate it.

Carolyn Monroe: Thank you.

Craig Smiddy: Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from John Heagney with Dowling & Partners. Your line is open.

John Heagney: Good afternoon. I think most of my questions were answered. I just have maybe capital question, particularly in the run-off. So if I look at the contingency reserve, the stat contingency reserve as of Q1, it was roughly $110 million, give or take. You upstreamed $35 million of capital out of that entity. I’m assuming then a lot of that, if not all, was another regulatory release of the contingency reserve. So, that ballpark is $75 million or so left. How should I think about or how should we think about that coming down from this point forward? Is $20 million, $25 million a quarter over the next year or so the run rate we should assume?

Frank Sodaro: Hi John. This is Frank. For this year. I think that’s a good estimate about 25 a quarter, is the plan, and it is subject to regulatory approval. So, you’re spot on we can actually do it, we have to get approval and we feel comfortable with that for the rest of the year.

John Heagney: So then essentially?

Frank Sodaro: And that would take the total of $110 million for the year, sorry.

John Heagney: Yes, but then – so essentially you exhaust the contingency reserve in stance and then the book of business would just run-off over. Whatever the period is another five to seven or so years for the remaining equity?

Frank Sodaro: I think that’s right. I haven’t focused on the exact way that contingency reserve is coming on a dollar-for-dollar for dividends. I just would. I want to follow-up on that, but that the timeline you’re giving here its feels about right to me.

Craig Smiddy: Yes, I agree with Frank, the amount of dividend that we would expect next year, I would say it will be less than this year. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t say it would be zero. If you follow the trend – you can kind of follow the trend of the dividends that we upstream to the parent company over the last year or two and get a feel on how that has tracked.