In a recent post on X/Twitter I highlighted my favorite longs currently. The companies:
Hudson Pacific Properties HPP 0.00%↑
Hamilton Insurance Group HG 0.00%↑
Oscar Health OSCR 0.00%↑
Marex MRX 0.00%↑
The Baldwin Group BWIN 0.00%↑
The one that I have been itching to write up, but haven’t, is Hamilton Insurance Group. Part of my hesitancy had to do with me wanting to see a few quarters more of underwriting performance. Especially after the 2024 hurricane season, I felt it was necessary to see where the provisions came out. Now that 2024 is behind us and the 2024 10-K is out, I think now is a perfect time to post this. HG 0.00%↑ has been public for a little over a year and I think this is where the opportunity lies, it seems as though the market has been waiting to see (and still is) a proved out underwriting operation, I also believe given the size, it is difficult for funds of a certain aum to enter a material position (at $5b aum a 2% position would be approximately 5% of the entire company as of 3/5/2025).
Barely a SMID cap now I find this to be an insurer with strong fundamentals underwriting profitable business with a unique balance sheet that is trading below book value and has steadily grown book value per share from $16.49 in Q3 of 2023 to $22.95 in Q4 of 2025. Hamilton is, as of this moment, a shell for it’s assets with an insurance business as an option. As always, none of this is investment advice and I am not immune to making errors. I like sharing what I find interesting and hope along the way I can highlight certain companies that I think are performing well and are poised to continue performing well; Hamilton hits these marks. People will scoff at insurance companies, and many will put it in the too hard pile. However, I find insurance and insurance companies fascinating.
Overview
Founded: 2013
Public IPO Price (November 10, 2023): $15.00
Current Price: $20.94
Market Cap: $2.1 billion
Price/Book: 0.9x (not so much of a discount any longer)
“Hamilton Insurance Group, Ltd. is a Bermuda-headquartered company, whose subsidiaries and syndicates underwrite insurance and reinsurance risks on a global basis through two reporting segments: International and Bermuda.” Hamilton operates three underwriting platforms that are included in the reporting segments.
Hamilton Global Specialty – International Segment
Hamilton Select – International Segment
Hamilton Re – Bermuda Segment
International Segment:
Hamilton Global Specialty specializes in commercial specialty and casualty insurance for medium- to large-sized accounts. It also provides specialty reinsurance products through Lloyd’s Syndicate 4000, which is managed by Hamilton Managing Agency Limited and Hamilton Insurance DAC. The managing agency underwrites products through Syndicate 4000 as well as Syndicate 1947. Syndicate 1947 has fairly specific products that they offer: treaty based reinsurance for ag, engineering, property. They also underwrite personal lines and personal accident. To get a sense of the products that Hamilton Insurance DAC offers here is a link: Hamilton Insurance DAC. Some of the risks include fairly niche lines such as space (of which they recently made a new hire), Fine Art, Kidnap & Ransom, Political Risk, US War & Terrorism, etc.
Hamilton Select specializes in domestic US excess & surplus risk, writing casualty risk for middle market clients for the US E&S market. Excess and surplus is the market that higher risk, niche, and hard to place risk goes to find coverage. This market is made up of non-admitted insurers who have “power of rate and form,” which is a way to say these non-admitted insurers have the power to tailor the policy structure and charge rates they deem necessary.
A brief note regarding admitted and non-admitted carriers. Your home insurance is most likely from an admitted carrier. If you wanted liability insurance for a gambling business, you would likely tap into the non-admitted market. Non-admitted markets are still regulated and the insurers still must abide by capital requirements.
The suite of Hamilton Select products below:
Bermuda Segment:
Hamilton Re underwrites property, casualty, and specialty reinsurance globally. Hamilton Re in the US writes casualty and specialty on a global basis and Hamilton Re Bermuda grants access to the high excess Bermuda market for specialty products.
Under the Hamilton Re banner there are three reinsurance lines and three primary insurance lines.
Reinsurance Coverages:
Property Treaty Reinsurance: variety of property reinsurance products with worldwide coverage, including Excess of Loss, Proportional, Stop Loss, Aggregate, Industry Loss Warranty, Retro, and Risk Excess. The company offers capacity on a multi-year basis, with reinstatable or single-shot limits, and a maximum program line of $60 million for Catastrophe and $20 million for Risk XS.
Specialty Reinsurance: covers various niche areas, such as: Accident & Health, Aviation, Crisis Management, Financial Lines, Marine & Energy, Multiline Specialty, and Satellite reinsurance. I would implore you, if interested, to check out each of these lines further: Specialty Reinsurance
Casualty Reinsurance (Bermuda & US): offering solutions for General Liability, Umbrella & Excess Casualty, Professional Liability, Workers’ Compensation & Employer’s Liability, etc. “The casualty reinsurance is written out of Bermuda and US on a proportional and excess of loss basis covering worldwide exposure.” – excerpt from 2024 10-K.
Insurance Coverages:
Property D&F Insurance: bespoke property coverage specializing in large North American commercial. Capacity and participation are below:
Financial Lines Insurance: underwriting on a worldwide basis focusing on Directors & Officers, errors & Omissions, Employment Practices Liability, and Transactional Liability. The targeted coverage is for large US commercial companies and financial institutions on a worldwide XOL basis.
Casualty Insurance: insurance solutions with a broad appetite for complex risks, serving a diversified book of mostly Fortune 1000 business. The company provides up to $25 million in capacity. Target markets include energy, rail & transport, chemicals, hospitality, etc.
Below is a visualization of the Hamilton Insurance Group corporate structure:
Personnel
While the underwriting results are paramount, without understanding the precise lines of coverage driving the segment results you are left with little understanding of risk. Furthermore, just focusing on financial results tells you an incomplete picture about the underwriting culture of an insurer. This isn’t to negate the importance of good results as they are paramount, but in my view, insurance is a game of longevity and that is driven by decisions the management team and underwriters make on a day-to-day basis.
To that point… A couple of notable members of the risk/actuarial/underwriting team:
Wilfred Chin – Chief Actuary & Group Chief Actuary. Wilfred Chin spent 14 years at Tokio Marine Kiln, a specialist underwriting with an international presence and a very broad suite of products. He started at Tokio Marine Kiln as an actuary and proceeded to become Chief Actuary & Head of Reserving. Given the product portfolio of Tokio Marine Kiln, I personally believe the overlap makes him well versed in the types of lines that Hamilton offers. When he was hired in 2023 he was named Chief Actuary of Hamilton Global Specialty, the underwriting platform written by Syndicate 4000 and DAC, in 2024 he was promoted to Group Chief Actuary. (Tokio Marine Kiln is a part of Tokio Marine Holdings $8766.T)
Jamie Secor – Chief Underwriting Officer @ Hamilton Select. Jamie Secor joined Hamilton in 2021 after a very successful 11 year career at Kinsale Insurance Company $KNSL. When she joined Hamilton she was Head of Professional Liability business and subsequently promoted every year and a half until being named CUO of Hamilton Select.
Alex Baker – Chief Risk Officer. Alex Baker is a member of the executive team as the Chief Risk Officer, he joined Hamilton in 2016 at Hamilton International before being promoted. Prior to Hamilton he was at Chubb CB 0.00%↑, where he held the Syndicate Chief Actuary role in London.
On the whole, I find the underwriting/risk team to be staffed by competent people. I believe the culture is solid and I think the experience each of them hold compliments the current portfolio and ambitions of Hamilton at large.
Assets and Net Investment Income
First things first before diving into the FY 2024 operating results: the balance sheet. The structure of the balance sheet for Hamilton is not simply by any means, primarily due to an investment fund managed by Two Sigma.
Assets:
1) $2.38b of fixed maturity investments
2) $497.1m of short-term investments
3) $939.4m of investments in Two Sigma Hamilton Fund
4) $996.5m of cash and cash equivalents
Debt:
$149.9m term loan.