Genworth Financial - Earnings Call - Q1 2020

Transcript

Speaker 0

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Genworth Financial's First Quarter twenty twenty Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jennifer, and I will be your coordinator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. We will facilitate a question and answer session towards the end of this conference call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes.

Also, we ask that you refrain from using cell phones, speakerphones or handsets during the Q and A portion of today's call. I would now like to turn the presentation over to Tim Owens, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Owens, you may proceed.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Genworth's first quarter twenty twenty earnings call. Due to the current environment, shelter in place and social distancing guidelines, all of our speakers this morning are remote. I would ask that you please excuse any sound quality or technical issues that may arise. A press release and financial supplement were released last night.

And this morning, our earnings presentation was posted to our website and will be referenced during our call. We encourage you to review all these materials. Today, you will hear from our President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom McInerney followed by Kelly Groh, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared comments, we will open up the call for a question and answer period. In addition to our speakers, Kevin Schneider, Chief Operating Officer and Dan Sheehan, Chief Investment Officer, will be available to take your questions.

During the call this morning, we may make various forward looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from such statements. We advise you to read the cautionary notes regarding forward looking statements in our earnings release and related presentation as well as the risk factors of our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks as filed with the SEC. This morning's discussion also includes non GAAP financial measures that we believe may be more meaningful to investors. In our financial supplement, release and investor materials, non GAAP measures have been reconciled to GAAP where required in accordance with SEC rules.

Also, when we talk about results of our Australia business, please note that all percentage changes exclude the impact of foreign exchange. And finally, references to statutory results are estimates due to the timing of the filing of the statutory statements. And now I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Tom McInerney.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Tim. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. I hope all of you and your families are well and safe. Before I get started, I would like to thank the health care workers, our first responders, and the entire community of essential workers for their heroic efforts during this pandemic. I'd also like to thank my Genworth colleagues for their outstanding efforts to serve our customers and policyholders without interruption under these extraordinary and difficult personal and professional circumstances.

Genworth's first priority since the beginning of the spread of the coronavirus has been to protect the health and well-being of our people. In early March, our view was that there would likely be federal and state government mandates around shelter in place and social distancing protocols as our nation navigated the spread of COVID nineteen. These signals prompted us to conduct a mandatory two day work from home test on March. This test illustrated our general readiness for a work from home scenario while providing us with an early view on areas we needed to improve to ensure general service and operations were seamless. Some of our key learnings from this experience included the need for upgrade in wireless connections for our employees at home as well as assistance in home office setup needs.

With the information learned through this test, Genworth was able to implement a work from home policy across our US offices effective at the close of business on March 11. To further support our employees, Genworth is providing additional financial health and wellness resources including enhanced paid leave policies to assist employees in caring for themselves and their family members. We are also continuing to serve the communities in which we operate through financial contributions from the Genworth Foundation towards COVID nineteen relief efforts that are addressing immediate community needs. Genworth is matching a 100% of employee contributions to identify charity as well as offering virtual volunteer opportunities and special initiatives to support seniors. And finally, we are we are working with the GSEs and mortgage services in connection with their forbearance policies for mortgage payments as well as providing extended grace periods for life insurance LTC and annuity policyholders.

We've extended these and other relief options to customers to ensure continuation of insurance coverage and mitigate financial hardship for our policyholders. I'm very proud of our internal response efforts under leadership of our executive and crisis management teams. As a result of the terrific work of the Genworth employees, our operations, investment class service levels have been maintained with very little disruption. Now I'd like to discuss our pending transaction with Oceanwide, which we have maintained focused on completing while navigating the challenges presented by the coronavirus. Despite multiple hurdles throughout our transaction journey, which has been ongoing for three plus years, we are extremely pleased to have received all The US regulatory approvals required to complete the Oceanwide transaction subject to confirmation from the Delaware Department of Insurance that the Oceanwide transaction may proceed under its existing approval.

With those approvals in place, Oceanwide is currently finalizing its funding plan for the transaction purchase price of $5.43 per share. As previously disclosed, Oceanwide has a financing commitment for debt funding of up to $1,800,000,000 through Hony Capital to partially finance the acquisition of Genworth, which was extended to 06/30/2020. Understandably, we have received several questions about Oceanwide's financing arrangement and the length of time it may take to line everything up to close, which I would like to address. Oceanwide has informed us that they continue to work to arrange funding for the transaction, and the funding plan is progressing well. Pony Capital is a Hong Kong based private equity firm sponsored by Legend Holdings, a leading investment management firm.

Oceanwide has a good relationship with the firm with a 17% interest in Legend Holdings and invests as a limited partner in some of their transactions. The investors of Hone Capital include leading global investment institutions such as Goldman Sachs, the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Tomatsa. In addition to its discussions with Hone Capital, Oceanwide is also talking to a number of third parties as they work through the funding plan to ensure the process continues to run smoothly. Given the unprecedented market disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Oceanwide and Genworth had previously extended the merger agreement deadline to no later than 06/30/2020, provide the parties with additional time if needed to close the transaction. While we announced in March that we were targeting closing by the May, we currently expect that the challenges caused by the pandemic will likely delay the closing until the June.

The most recent extension provides Genworth with the flexibility to pursue alternative strategic options if desired. And looking at potential alternatives, our immediate focus is on evaluating options to refinance our 1,100,000,000.0 in debt coming due in 2021, which Kelly will discuss in more detail. While having this flexibility is important, it is even clearer today that the Oceanwide transaction is the best alternative for our shareholders and all our stakeholders. As a reminder, we reached a significant milestone with our New York regulator who reapproved our transaction at the March. Connection with the reapproval, Genworth committed, among other things, to contribute a 100,000,000 to GLICNY at the closing of the transaction.

Following New York's approval, our Virginia regulator also reapproved the transaction. Once Oceanwide's funding plan is finalized, Oceanwide will discuss the currency conversion and transfer of funds with China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange or SAFE to complete the transaction. Oceanwide will also confirm with our Delaware insurance regulator that the transaction may proceed under its existing approval. Based on discussions we've had with Delaware, we believe they will provide the confirmation. Before I turn the call over to Kelly, would like to provide a high level overview of our performance in the first quarter, particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-nineteen pandemic and significant declines in equity markets and interest rates impacted our first quarter performance primarily in the month of March as the global social and economic impacts of COVID-nineteen began to take hold. The global mortgage insurance businesses experienced limited impacts from the pandemic in the first quarter as mortgage origination levels remain strong and delinquencies remain stable. The U. S. Mortgage insurance business delivered strong operating income of $148,000,000 up 19% year over year driven by insurance in force growth and strong loss performance.

The underlying strength of our USMI business is illustrated by the significant amount of new insurance written during the quarter, which was up 86% to $17,900,000,000 year over year. However, given the significant impact COVID-nineteen continues to have on The US economy, most notably the unprecedented increase in unemployment and the forbearance protocols currently in effect, we expect lower mortgage originations as well as higher delinquencies in the second half of twenty twenty. At the end of the quarter, USMI's PMIERs sufficiency ratio was very strong at 142% and excess of 1,100,000,000 above requirements. While we are pleased with the current level of capital in USMI, we do expect our PMIER sufficiency to decrease over time as delinquencies increase. Similarly, in our Australia MI business, although performance in the first quarter was solid and capital was $175,000,000 above management targets, the economic and regulatory environment is such that we expect lower performance in the second half of the year and are closely watching its capital levels.

Holly will discuss capital and our liquidity position as well as the options we have at the holding company level to continue to improve our financial flexibility as we move through the rest of the year. Turning to the life insurance businesses, our performance in the first quarter experienced pressure due to the decline in equity markets and lower interest rates, primarily in our fixed annuity business as well as in our runoff, the variable annuity block of business. Long term care insurance roughly broke even in the first quarter with operating profit up $21,000,000 relative to last year, primarily due to higher earnings from our in force rate actions. We have continued to make on our multi year LTC rate action plan or MIRRAP, which is essential to stabilizing our long term care insurance business. Year to date, we continue to make good progress against rate actions that is consistent with the MIRRAP with approvals on a 130,000,000 of annualized in force premiums representing a weighted average premium increase of 35% or 45,000,000 of annual incremental premiums going forward.

On a cumulative net present value basis, since 2012, Benworth has now achieved approximately 12,700,000,000.0 of approved LTC premium rate increases. Aligned with this objective of the initiatives set forth by the NAIC Long Term Care Insurance Task Force, develop a more consistent and timely national approach for reviewing LTC insurance premium increases and to identify more options to provide consumers with choice such as benefit reductions where policies are no longer affordable due to rate increases. There's a heightened focus on this extremely important initiative across the long term care insurance industry, particularly in light of the Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania's or SHIP's recently filed rehabilitation plan. SHIP's plan includes proposed changes to either increase policyholder premiums or reduce benefits to LTC policies that have a premium below a specified rate, which are likely to be policies in those states that are behind on actually justified rate increases. We will encourage the ISC task force to consider whether actions similar to those proposed in the SHIP plan can be applied more generally to states that are behind on improving rate actions.

Looking ahead, there's a wide range of possible economic recovery scenarios that depend on several factors including the duration of the pandemic, impacts from ongoing fiscal and monetary policies, the volatility and strength of the capital markets and the return of The US consumer. While we expect near term volatility in this uncertain environment, we are prepared to navigate these challenges and believe the strategies we have in place will enable Genworth to continue to deliver for our stakeholders. In summary, I'm pleased with the progress we have made in the last three months to secure the final approvals for the transaction while delivering excellent service to our customers and policyholders during this challenging macroeconomic period. I would like to thank our leadership team and the rest of Genworth employees for their continued focus in this time of uncertainty. We continue to prioritize their safety and well-being while remaining a 100% committed to closing the Oceanwide transaction as soon as possible.

I would also like to thank our customers and policyholders for their commitment to this difficult period together. And finally, I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued patience as we work to bring the Oceanwide transaction to a successful conclusion. Now I will turn the call over to Kelly, who will provide you with a more detailed update on our first quarter performance, trends today in the business and our liquidity and capital position.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. Today, I will share some financial perspectives regarding current and potential future impacts from the COVID nineteen virus on our businesses and our holding company liquidity as well as discuss our first quarter financial results. To expand on Tom's comments, the COVID-nineteen virus and resulting macroeconomic impacts and regulatory responses are unparalleled with the ultimate impact still very much uncertain due to the unknown length of the pandemic, the speed and shape of the economic recovery, and the impact of future regulatory and governmental actions. These dynamics will impact all of our businesses going forward. Our enterprise risk management, finance, and actuarial teams are focused on modeling these uncertain events and being prepared to implement proactive contingency plans to maintain the financial health of our businesses.

In our U. S. Mortgage insurance business, we will be closely following delinquencies in the second quarter as we expect them to rise as a result of higher unemployment and government supported forbearance programs. It remains to be seen how these delinquencies cure as the economy restarts and if the pattern will be similar to experience with recent localized events such as hurricanes Harvey and Irma. In these instances, delinquencies cured months later following rebuilding and stimulus efforts.

We do expect new insurance written or NIW for the second half of the year to decline versus the levels we saw in the first quarter with anticipated slowing of the purchase originations market only partially offset by refinancing activity as interest rates will likely remain low. We started the quarter in a strong capital position with actions we took over the last few years. We ended the quarter with over $1,100,000,000 of capital above the PMIERs minimum and approximately 77% of our risk in force covered by some level of reinsurance. We remain actively engaged with our regulators and the GSEs during this turbulent time. Our views of COVID-nineteen delinquency experience, the overall housing and macroeconomic environment, and our ongoing regulatory discussions will inform our view around future USMI dividends.

And we may not receive further dividends from our USMI business in 2020 in order to preserve capital in our insurance subsidiaries during this period of uncertainty. The amount and timing of dividends will be reevaluated later in the year and depend on the economic recovery from COVID nineteen. Turning to Australia. The government's supporting similar forbearance programs for up to six months in response to COVID nineteen. However, under Australia practice, payments missed during the forbearance period are not considered delinquent until after the expiration of the forbearance period if scheduled future payments are not resumed.

We would still anticipate some level of increased delinquencies following the expiration of the forbearance programs due to economic pressures and are likely to experience reduced earnings in our Australia business for the remainder of the year. Similar to The U. S, the shape of the recovery and the cure rates for these delinquencies will be the drivers for the ultimate financial performance. We expect lower new business volume in Australia given the current state of the economy and the housing market activity. We started the quarter in a strong capital position in Australia with over AUD 400,000,000 of capital above our targeted minimum levels and limited debt at the local level with a 2025 maturity.

Also in January, Australia renewed 800,000,000 Australian dollars of excess of loss reinsurance with a panel of over 20 reinsurers. However, given the heightened uncertainty over COVID nineteen and recent regulatory guidance, our Australian business withdrew financial guidance in late March and now will reconsider dividends for the rest of the year until there's more clarity around the impacts of COVID-nineteen. A consideration in this decision that was noted in Australia's release last night is the 182,000,000 Australian dollar local accounting charge the business took for liability adequacy testing or LAT. This test calculates potential losses using a higher confidence level than best estimates and evaluates recoverability of the DAC balance and then the need for any additional reserves under that stress case. There was no equivalent charge under U.

S. GAAP accounting in the first quarter as no deficiency existed due to higher unearned premium reserves, lower DAC balances, and an accounting regime based on the best estimate of outcomes. Regarding our US Life businesses, the COVID nineteen economic impacts and uncertainties do not change our view that this business is isolated and dependent on its existing capital, the multi year LTC rate action plan and prudent management of the in force business, which includes expense management. We have not yet seen meaningfully elevated levels of direct mortality or lapses in our US Life business from the COVID nineteen virus. What we have experienced is the resultant macroeconomic impacts of the social distancing measures, which includes the reduction in GDP and higher unemployment, which is driving interest rates to a historically low level, increasing equity market volatility, and causing credit deterioration.

These impacts will certainly be a heightened focus area of ours going forward. While a short term impact may not necessarily cause an impact to our long term actuarial assumptions that we are monitoring and will review later this year, these broad macroeconomic factors did impact our 1Q results primarily on U. S. Life products that require updates for unlocked assumptions such as our variable and fixed annuities. We also experienced unfavorable mark to market losses on our equity and limited partnership investments reflecting the significant market decline as of March 31.

We will continue to monitor interest rates as we move later in the year and evaluate all of our assumptions that may need updating as we see longer term trends. In addition to the dislocated market environment, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners or NAIC and a number of states have instituted temporary premium grace period programs and no lapse guidelines. We do not anticipate this will have a meaningful impact. I did want to spend a few minutes discussing our investment portfolio and given questions investors may have, we have added an additional slide to the presentation posted this morning on our website. Approximately 85% of our cash and investment portfolio, which totaled $73,200,000,000 in market value at the end of the first quarter, backs our U.

S. Life insurance obligations. This portfolio is constructed to create a level of diversification based on sector, issuer, and ratings. In total, approximately 78% is invested in investment grade fixed maturity securities with the majority rated A or better. We have always monitored our investment portfolio very carefully for signs of distress that could be early indicators of rating downgrades and credit losses.

In the first quarter, we saw no credit losses and limited level of credit migration within our fixed income portfolio. Also, with the low interest rate environment partly offset by widening credit spreads, our unrealized gain position was $900,000,000 at the end of the quarter with less than 5% trading at less than 85% of book value as of threethirty one. Both of these metrics have improved since quarter end. We do expect credit migration and credit losses will accelerate in 2Q, particularly in the energy and transportation sectors, which represent approximately 9% of our fixed income portfolio. Another 10% of our portfolio is our approximately $7,000,000,000 commercial mortgage loan portfolio, which we are also closely monitoring.

As of quarter end, all loans were performing. However, we have received a number of inbound calls over the last few weeks related to restructuring with the focus on loans for retail properties. We are evaluating these situations one by one with a focus on principal preservation. While the scale of the COVID nineteen virus and implications are unprecedented and many uncertainties remain, we will continue to monitor events and proactively take steps to preserve and improve the financial health of our businesses. Before I talk about operating results for the quarter, I did want to address liquidity at our holding company as this remains a top priority.

We ended the quarter with $575,000,000 in cash and liquid assets or approximately $200,000,000 above our targeted 2x forward debt service buffer. During the quarter, we addressed a number of large near term obligations with proceeds received from the sale of the Canada MI business in December 2019. As depicted on Page 16 of the investor deck, Genworth retired June 2020 debt in addition to repurchasing $14,000,000 of our 2021 debt in the open market at prices below par. We also fully retired the $200,000,000 intercompany note to GLIC. Other uses of cash during the quarter included additional cash collateral relating to our interest rate hedge on our hybrid debt given the sharp reduction in interest rates, interest expense of $66,000,000 which includes accrued and unpaid interest on the early debt retirement, a $134,000,000 interim payment to AXA, which we discussed on last quarter's call, and approximately $75,000,000 in other miscellaneous and timing items that are typically higher in 1Q and are mostly reimbursed by our businesses throughout the year.

Finally, we received ordinary dividends of $11,000,000 from our Australia business during the quarter. I do want to update investors on the actual litigation that we discussed last quarter. We continue to be uncertain of the ultimate amounts that may be due or demanded under a ruling. AXA has updated their invoice claim amount net of the January interim payment to £389,000,000, which converts to $483,000,000 at March 31 foreign currency exchange rates. As mentioned before, AXA is also seeking a tax gross up on the amounts invoiced for an additional amount of approximately $142,000,000 assuming March 31 FX rates.

Final damages will be the subject of a June hearing, which we have no reason at this time to believe will be delayed due to COVID nineteen. As we manage our liquidity in 2020 and beyond, we are mindful of these possible incremental litigation expenses and approximately 1,100,000,000.0 in combined debt maturities in February and September. We are also cautiously planning for no further subsidiary dividends in 2020 to preserve capital in our mortgage insurance subsidiaries. We are reviewing alternatives to meet those needs in the event the Oceanwide transaction is terminated or delayed. These liquidity alternatives include a possible debt issuance from our US mortgage insurance business or a secured loan facility, which would provide time for markets to recover before a more permanent solution can be found and we can further delever.

Our agreement with Oceanwide gives us flexibility to pursue these and other options in parallel with the ongoing transaction, although our top priority is still to close the Oceanwide transaction. Turning back to earnings for the quarter, we reported a net loss available to Genworth shareholders for the quarter of $66,000,000 and adjusted operating income of $33,000,000 The net loss in the quarter included investment losses of $89,000,000 net of taxes and other adjustments, primarily reflecting embedded derivative losses on our variable annuity product, FX hedges in Australia and mark to market losses on equity securities and limited partnerships. In USMI, adjusted operating income for the quarter was $148,000,000 compared to $160,000,000 in the prior quarter and $124,000,000 in the prior year. The prior quarter results included $21,000,000 of favorable impacts from assumption updates. The reported loss ratio for the quarter was eight percent.

Overall financial performance through the 2020 has been generally strong and characterized by strong housing fundamentals, increasing insurance in force and low delinquencies. We did not observe any COVID-nineteen related delinquencies during the quarter nor deterioration in performance trends of our existing delinquencies that would warrant reserve strengthening. Loan new insurance written in USMI was $17,900,000,000 in the quarter, up 86% versus the prior year, primarily driven by a larger private mortgage insurance market. In Australia, adjusted operating income was $9,000,000 in the quarter, down from $12,000,000 in the prior quarter and $14,000,000 in the same quarter of the prior year. The U.

S. GAAP loss ratio for the quarter was 34%. Financial performance on a U. S. GAAP basis in Australia through the 2020 has been generally stable, although the pressure from smaller in force books, portfolio seasoning and lower policy cancellations have driven lower results versus prior periods.

COVID-nineteen did not have a material impact on U. S. GAAP results for GMA for the first quarter of twenty twenty. Loan new insurance written in Australia increased 26% versus the prior year to $4,100,000,000 due to the higher mortgage origination volume from a key customer. Turning to our U.

S. Life Insurance segment, results were impacted by continued lapses in our twenty year term life products and low interest rates and equity market volatility impacting fixed indexed annuities. In long term care insurance, our multiyear rate action plan continues to be the key driver of results. In LTC, claim terminations were higher in first quarter versus the prior period and consistent with seasonal expectations. Benefit utilization rates on existing claims, which are updated each quarter on a rolling basis, had a slightly favorable impact on earnings for the quarter compared to an unfavorable update in the prior year.

New LTC claims for the quarter continue to reflect higher claim counts on our larger Choice one and Choice two blocks, which we expect as those blocks age. The overall benefits of the in force rate actions for LTC, particularly the reduced benefit impacts, were higher than the prior year but down sequentially as illustrated on page 11 of the investor presentation released this morning. As we've discussed in the past, benefit reductions can fluctuate from quarter to quarter, and we are also beginning to see a wind down of the implementations associated with large state approvals we received in 2018 and early twenty nineteen consistent with our projections. We expect the benefit of in force rate actions to continue to be strong this year, although at a level more consistent with first quarter performance. These rate action approvals included expanded reduced benefit and stable premium options, which continue to be selected at a higher frequency by our policyholders as many of these policyholders have been subject to multiple rounds of increases.

This flexibility for our policyholders is more important than ever given the COVID nineteen macroeconomic impacts. We will continue to monitor policyholder behavior carefully in light of the potential COVID-nineteen impact to our policyholders. During the quarter, Ginrich received approvals impacting $130,000,000 of premiums with a weighted average approval rate of 35%, which was in line with expectations. We believe regulators continue to recognize the importance of timely justifiable rate actions, and our experience the last few months reinforces this despite the many priorities and work from home orders of the state insurance departments. Turning to life insurance.

Overall mortality in term and universal life for the quarter was significantly unfavorable versus the prior quarter and prior year. Although we do not have evidence that this is related to COVID nineteen given only three claims identified as related to COVID nineteen were received during the quarter totaling just under $300,000 in benefit payments. We will continue to monitor our mortality experience as well as any impacts from COVID-nineteen as we progress throughout the year. Life results were also negatively impacted by an operating loss of $30,000,000 in our term universal life product as we experienced a significant gap reserve build in the quarter as certain of these policies enter their post level premium period and are currently in the grace period. The ultimate persistency of these products that are entering these periods of higher premiums is uncertain.

Reserves attributable to these policies increased during the quarter and will be released over time assuming a meaningful number of these policies lapse after the premium grace period expires. Sales of ten year term UL grew throughout 2010 and peaked mid twenty eleven. We therefore expect this negative dynamic will persist through 2020 and into early twenty twenty one, after which the number of policies lapsing should exceed the number of policies entering the premium grace period. The term life business also continues to be negatively impacted from shock lapses that are higher than our original locked in assumptions, especially with the large twenty year level premium term life insurance business written in the year 2000 that is entering the post level premium period. Total term life insurance DAC amortization, a noncash impact primarily related to these term life lapses, reduced earnings by $27,000,000 after tax, which is $6,000,000 higher than the last quarter.

We expect amortization related to the business written in 2000 to remain elevated throughout 2020 and into early twenty twenty one as more interest in post level premium period and lapses accelerate. In fixed annuities, low interest rates and equity markets drove additional reserves in fixed indexed annuities of approximately $9,000,000 during the quarter compared to a reserve release in the prior quarter. Our single premium immediate annuities did not record any additional charges related to loss recognition testing in the quarter. The results in our Runoff segment were also negatively impacted during the quarter from the equity market and rate decline. As a reminder, the runoff segment consists mostly of our variable annuity block of approximately $5,700,000,000 of assets under management before reinsurance with $3,800,000,000 net of reinsurance, which has been in runoff since 2011.

Our adjusted operating loss in Corporate and Other was $41,000,000 for the quarter. This loss was lower versus last quarter primarily attributable to lower interest expense as we retired debt. Turning to capital levels, our U. S. And Australian mortgage insurance businesses maintained a very strong capital positions at the end of the quarter.

We will continue to closely monitor capital levels as the year progresses given the dynamics I discussed earlier. In USMI, we finished the quarter with a PMIER sufficiency ratio of 142. The PMIER sufficiency level is in excess of $1,100,000,000 above the level of required assets as of 03/31/2020. This amount did include a modest 3 point or $54,000,000 benefit due to the application of the industry's PMIERs existing treatment of delinquencies for properties located in FEMA declared major disaster areas for eligible delinquencies. Our Australia MI business ended the quarter with an estimated capital ratio of 178%, which is approximately $270,000,000 or USD 175,000,000 above the high end of the prescribed capital amount or PCA management target range of 132 to 144%.

This represents a decrease from 191% last quarter, largely from a first quarter loss due to the Australia GAAP liability adequacy testing I mentioned earlier. We expect cap sorry. We expect capital in Genworth Life Insurance Company or GLIC as a percentage of company action level RBC to be approximately 195% as of the end of the first quarter, down approximately 18 points from year end 2019. Estuary results were primarily driven by reserve increases on variable annuities, which were only partially offset by hedge gains. As part of the Oceanwide transaction, Genworth will contribute $175,000,000 to GLIC and $100,000,000 to GLICNY upon closing the transaction.

This is possible due to the $1,500,000,000 capital contribution committed as a part of the transaction. Other than the contributions to U. S. Life subsidiaries that we agreed to make in connection with obtaining the regulatory approval for the Oceanwide transaction, it is our intention to manage all of our US life entities on a stand alone basis with no plans to infuse any additional capital. In closing, these are unprecedented times.

We expect COVID-nineteen will have a far reaching and uncertain impact on the economies in which we operate in the quarters ahead. From a financial standpoint, we started the year well positioned through actions we took to build up capital in our mortgage platforms, further isolate our US Life business, and position its success with the multiyear rate action plan and selling our Canada MI business with proceeds used to address near term holding company obligations. We will continue to navigate through these uncertain times with a focus on all our key stakeholders. With that, let's open it up for questions.

Speaker 0

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q and A portion of the call. As a reminder, please refrain from using cell phones, speaker phones or headsets. Press one to ask a question. We'll go to our first question from Joshua Esrov with Credit Sight.

Speaker 4

Good morning. Thank you very much. My question is around the timing of the deal. So in previous quarters, when New York regulators were looking for a capital contribution in connection to the deal, the general team mentioned that if the solution wasn't in place fairly quickly that general from China Oceanwide could could call the deal a little off. Now, with the ball seemingly in in China Oceanwide Court in terms of finalizing funding, how how amenable are you, to extending the deal beyond, June 30 if necessary?

Speaker 2

So thank you very much for the question. It's a good question, and and I'll take that one. The the first thing I would say, and and this is, you know, in the press release, both China Oceanwide and their chairman and Jenworth and I are fully committed to the transaction. We have all approvals at this point. Unfortunately, COVID despite all those efforts, COVID nineteen came and given all the uncertainty, it's clearly a challenge, I think, for any any deals under under these circumstances.

But China Oceanwide continues to work with Hone Capital to arrange the 1,800,000,000.0 funding and so we're focused on closing the deal. We hope to do that by, you know, as soon as possible, but by the end of the quarter. You know, we'll we'll just have to see how things develop. I think both of us have shown over a long period of time commitment to the deal, and I think, you that's our focus at this point on both sides.

Speaker 4

Thanks a lot. I appreciate that. Maybe one quick follow-up. Is most of the finalizing component from China Oceanwide, is that related to the HONY funding commitment, or is that for the for the remainder of the the 900,000,000 that needs to be funded from China Oceanwide?

Speaker 2

So so I think the funding within Mainland China from China Oceanwide is in good shape. I think the focus at this point is working with Hone Capital. And as I mentioned, you know, Hone Capital and Oceanwide have very good relationship. Oceanwide owns 17% of the founder owner of Hony Legend Holdings. So I think that's going well, but obviously given all the uncertainty, it's taking more time.

But we still hope to be able to close by the end of the second quarter.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. Stay safe.

Speaker 2

You too. Thanks.

Speaker 0

We'll go next to Mark Palmer with BTIG.

Speaker 5

Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. You had alluded to China Oceanwide working with third parties on their funding plan. If you could just give a little bit more color in terms of what the role those third parties would, potentially play and why why they're reaching out to them, you know, honing capital.

Speaker 2

Mark, that's a good question, and and I'll take that one again. They are making progress with Hony Capital. And as I as we said, they have a relationship there. But they're also talking to other other parties just given all of the uncertainties in case they they need to rely on alternatives. But at this point, I think the, you know, the main focus is on on Honee Capital and getting that funding plan finalized.

Speaker 5

And also, you had mentioned, that, you now expect that that the deal will not be closed until the the June and had said that that gives you flexibility to explore other options. If you could just provide a little bit more color on what you meant by that.

Speaker 2

So, Mark, another good question. When we extended, the transaction from the March to the June, obviously, the COVID nineteen issues were just developing, and that was in in late March, but it was you know, we had already gone to working remotely, so we knew there were gonna be challenges. And we did say we did ask in the discussions with China Oceanwide that given all of the uncertainties because of COVID nineteen, it was prudent for Genworth to look at all the alternatives to the extent we are unable in the end to close the deal. And as part of that discussion, they agreed, and this is part of the fourteenth the fourteenth waiver that we signed just before the March. It allows us to explore any other alternatives.

And we talked about some of the plan b options some time ago. They're they're still there. As Kelly and I both said in our remarks, we're primarily focused on the 1,100,000,000.0 of debt due next year. And so most of the immediate focus on alternatives is around the refinancing of the 1,100,000,000.0 of debt assuming if the deal doesn't close and we don't get the 1 and a half billion therefore and we have to look for look to refinance the debt that comes due next year.

Speaker 5

Thanks very much.

Speaker 0

We'll go next to Robert Weaver with INTL FCStone.

Speaker 2

Hi. My question has been answered. Thank you. Thank you, Robert.

Speaker 0

We'll go next to Christopher Bolton, Private Investor.

Speaker 6

As far as delayed actions taken to date that have been approved, would you say you are you are confident that that obligations for long term care policyholders in the older books of business are looking more secure than your than your projections, say, three or four years ago?

Speaker 2

Christopher, I'll I'll take that question as well. You know, we we have made, I I would say, tremendous progress in the last six or seven years since 02/2012. If you look if you look at the the original price for premiums and the premiums we need, there was a significant shortfall. As of the end of the first quarter, we had received since 2012 premium increases or benefit reductions that have a net present value benefit to Genworth of 12,700,000,000.0. We have a little bit over $77,000,000,000 of future premium increases and benefit reductions to go.

A lot of that is on the newer blocks, what we call our choice two block, which were issued in the 2003 to 02/1112 period. And so given where we are and what we have left, we we would say we're 60% or so of the way through shoring up those those books and bringing them closer to a breakeven level with the premium increases. So I'd say today versus, where we were several years ago, which is the basis of your questions, I think we're in much better position. The other thing that's happening is, that's happened over the last, three to five years, this partly because of the Penn Treaty insolvency and also I talked a little bit on in my prepared about the senior health insurance company of Pennsylvania and their rehabilitation plan. I think the regulators have been more open to providing significant premium increases, benefit reductions for all of the long term care insurers because of the shortfalls in the books.

So I do think we're also working, all of us, including Genworth, working well with regulators to shore up those legacy blocks of business. So thanks for your question.

Speaker 6

Okay. And as a follow-up to that, on the life side, the term and the universal life products, are policyholders as far as your ability to meet claim obligations on the life side on your UL products, would you say that policyholders are in a stronger position to realize policy benefits with the transaction being closed than without the transaction being closed, viewing or keeping in mind the the the fact that while Genworth will remain an independent entity, it now goes to to Chinese ownership?

Speaker 2

Well, Christopher, I would I would say we have, thought all along that, our policyholders, life, annuity, long term care, our mortgage insurance customers, in The US and Australia are all advantaged significantly by the transaction because in addition to the purchase price, China Oceanwide is investing an additional 1 and a half billion of capital. A significant amount of that will go to strengthen the balance sheet, reduce the debt, get the debt to a place where we're it's we're very comfortable with where the debt will be after the investment of 1 and a half billion. So I think that strengthens the company and therefore is an advantage and a significant advantage of the deal for all policyholders. And I think the regulators also recognize that and and while we have committed as part of the deal to put capital into our main 49 state company, GLIC, 175,000,000 and 100,000,000 to GLICNY, and that will further strengthen them. But but more broadly, I think the regulators also see the benefits of the transaction.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Ladies and gentlemen, we are out of time. And I will now turn the call back over to Doctor. I'm sorry, Mr. McInery for closing comments.

Speaker 2

Thank you very much, operator, and thank you to all of you for joining the call today. All of Americans, and we all face unprecedented uncertainty and challenges due to the COVID-nineteen pandemic. At Genworth, we are managing well working remotely. You know, it's been a significant surprise to me that we've been able to both protect our employees and their families and serve our customers well despite all working remotely since the March. We continue to work closely with Oceanwide to close the transaction.

They continue to work on the funding plan and we are making progress. We are prepared for a wide variety of economic and business scenarios in our businesses given the unprecedented volatility uncertainty given the COVID-nineteen. So thank you all very much for your interest and support of Genworth. And at this point, I'll turn the call back over to the operator.

Speaker 0

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Genworth's financial first quarter earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation. At this time, the call will end.