Old Republic's Q2 2025: Key Contradictions in Title Insurance Rates, Capital Allocation, and Investment Strategy

Title insurance rate decreases and impact, capital allocation and share repurchases, title insurance rates in Texas and investment portfolio strategy are the key contradictions discussed in Old Republic International Corporation's latest 2025Q2 earnings call.



Strong Financial Performance and Growth:
- Old Republic International Corporation reported pretax operating income of $267.5 million for Q2 2025, up from $253.8 million in Q2 2024.
- The growth was driven by strong retention, rate increases, and new business writings across their specialty insurance and title insurance segments.

Specialty Insurance Performance:
- Specialty insurance net premiums earned grew by 14.6% in Q2, generating $253.7 million in pretax operating income.
- The growth was attributed to strong renewal retention ratios, rate increases, and solid new business writings in new specialty underwriting subsidiaries.

Title Insurance Challenges:
- Title insurance premium and fee revenue for Q2 was $698 million, up 5% from the previous year, despite a slow real estate market and higher mortgage interest rates.
- The segment faced challenges with lower market demand and higher expenses, resulting in a combined ratio of 99% compared to 95.4% in Q2 2024.

Conservative Reserving and Favorable Development:
- Favorable prior year loss reserve development provided a 2.1 percentage point benefit to the consolidated loss ratio.
- The company's conservative reserving practices and favorable loss reserve development contributed to improved financial performance across both specialty insurance and title insurance segments.

Capital Management and Dividends:
- The company paid a special dividend of $500 million in Q1 and no share repurchases during the quarter, focusing on maintaining a strong balance sheet and investing in new opportunities.
- This decision was based on the company's belief in carrying more capital than some peers and maintaining a balance between capital management and maximizing shareholder returns.