BRANCHVILLE, N.J., Dec. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Selective
Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIGI) announced that Gregory E. Murphy, the Company's Non-Executive
Chairperson, will not stand for re-election at the 2022 Annual
Meeting of Stockholders. Mr. Murphy, who joined Selective in 1980,
served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2020,
before assuming the Executive Chairman role in February 2020. He became Non-Executive
Chairperson in February 2021, and he
has been a director since 1997.
![(PRNewsfoto/Selective Insurance Group, Inc.) (PRNewsfoto/Selective Insurance Group, Inc.)](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/942365/Selective__Logo.jpg)
"As both CEO and Board Chairperson, Greg
Murphy has overseen a period of tremendous value creation
for our stockholders and led Selective's growth into a premier
independent agency property and casualty insurance carrier.
In his 20 years as CEO, he increased our market capitalization by
more than 6.5 times, tripled net premiums written, and expanded our
operations into multiple new states and excess and surplus
lines. He has successfully prepared Selective for the future,
as demonstrated by our successful leadership transition," said J.
Brian Thebault, Selective's Lead
Independent Director.
Mr. Murphy added, "I am extremely pleased with – and proud of –
Selective's current financial and market position, as evidenced by
AM Best's recent rating upgrade to 'A+' (Superior). John
Marchioni and his team have demonstrated their ability to grow our
operations and develop strategies that continue to drive
Selective's success. After a 42-year career at Selective, I
have decided the time is right to leave Selective and pursue other
focused interests."
In connection with today's announcement, the Selective Board of
Directors announced its intention to maintain the Lead Independent
Director position and nominate John J.
Marchioni, the Company's President and Chief Executive
Officer and member of the Board, as Chairperson following the 2022
Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Mr. Marchioni became
President and Chief Executive Officer in February 2020. He
was President and Chief Operating Officer from 2013 to 2020, and
elected to Selective's Board of Directors in May 2019.
About Selective Insurance Group, Inc.
Selective
Insurance Group, Inc. is a holding company for 10 property and
casualty insurance companies rated "A+" (Superior) by AM
Best. Through independent agents, the insurance companies
offer standard and specialty insurance for commercial and personal
risks and flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance
Program's Write Your Own Program. Selective's unique position
as both a leading insurance group and an employer of choice is
recognized in a wide variety of awards and honors, including
listing in the Fortune 1000 and being named one of "America's Best
Mid-Size Employers" by Forbes Magazine. For more information
about Selective, visit www.Selective.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this report, including information
incorporated by reference, are "forward-looking statements" as that
term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995 ("PSLRA"). The PSLRA provides a safe harbor under the
Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for
forward-looking statements.
These statements relate to our intentions, beliefs, projections,
estimations, or forecasts of future events or our future financial
performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and
other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results,
levels of activity, or performance to be materially different from
those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In
some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by use of
words such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect,"
"plan," "anticipate," "target," "project," "intend," "believe,"
"estimate," "predict," "potential," "pro forma," "seek," "likely,"
or "continue" or other comparable terminology. These statements are
only predictions, and we can give no assurance that such
expectations will prove to be correct. We undertake no obligation,
other than as may be required under the federal securities laws, to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements for any
reason.
Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially
from what we project, forecast, or estimate in forward-looking
statements, include without limitation:
- Related to COVID-19: ◦
-
- Governmental directives to contain or delay the spread of the
COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted ordinary business commerce and
impacted financial markets. These governmental actions, the extent,
duration, and possible alteration based on future COVID-19-related
developments that we cannot predict, could materially and adversely
affect our results of operations, net investment income, financial
position, and liquidity.
- The amount of premium we record may be reduced and our
underwriting results may be adversely impacted by (i) voluntary
premium credits on in-force commercial and personal automobile
policies, (ii) state insurance commissioner or other regulatory
directives to implement premium-based credit in lines other than
commercial and personal automobile, and we may be required to
return more premium than warranted by our filed rating plans and
actual loss experience, (iii) the effects of our voluntary efforts
or the directives from various state insurance regulators to extend
individualized payment flexibility and suspend policy
cancellations, late payment notices, and late or reinstatement
fees, (iv) return premiums that could be significant because our
general liability and workers compensation policies provide for
premium audit of revenues and payrolls, and (v) collectability of
premiums, which may be impacted by policyholder financial distress
and insolvency.
- Our loss and loss expenses may increase, our related reserves
may not be adequate, and our financial condition and liquidity may
be materially impacted if litigation or changes in statutory or
common law (i) require payment of COVID-19-related business
interruption losses despite contrary terms, conditions, and
exclusions in our policies or (ii) presume that COVID-19 is a
work-related illness compensable under workers compensation
policies for employees who contract the virus, regardless of
whether they worked in industries defined as essential in various
COVID-19-related governmental directives or interacted with the
public as part of their job duties.
- Our net investment income may be impacted by the significant
equity and debt financial market volatility resulting from the
COVID-19 pandemic and the related governmental orders because (i)
financial market volatility is reflected in our alternative
investments' performance, (ii) increased spreads on fixed income
securities may create mark-to-market investment valuation losses
that reduce unrealized capital gains and impact GAAP equity, and
(iii) net realized losses may increase if we intend to sell more
securities, particularly in asset classes that are more
significantly impacted by COVID-19-related governmental directives
and to which the Federal Reserve Board is providing liquidity and
structural support.
- To varying degrees, the effect, lifting, or lapsing of
COVID-19-related governmental directives in 2021 have disrupted
supply chains and caused shortages of products, services, and
labor. These shortages may impact our ability to attract and retain
labor, including increasing attrition rates, wages, and the cost
and difficulty of obtaining third-party non-U.S.-based
resources.
- Difficult conditions in global capital markets and the economy,
including the risk of prolonged higher inflation, could increase
loss costs and negatively impact investment portfolios;
- Deterioration in the public debt and equity markets and private
investment marketplace that could lead to investment losses and
interest rate fluctuations;
- Ratings downgrades on individual securities we own could affect
investment values and, therefore, statutory surplus;
- The adequacy of our loss reserves and loss expense
reserves;
- Frequency and severity of natural and man-made catastrophic
events, including without limitation hurricanes, tornadoes,
windstorms, earthquakes, hail, terrorism, including cyber-attacks,
explosions, severe winter weather, floods, and fires;
- Adverse market, governmental, regulatory, legal, or judicial
conditions or actions;
- The geographic concentration of our business in the eastern
portion of the United States;
- The cost, terms and conditions, and availability of
reinsurance;
- Our ability to collect on reinsurance and the solvency of our
reinsurers;
- The impact of changes in U.S. trade policies and imposition of
tariffs on imports that may lead to higher than anticipated
inflationary trends for our loss and loss expenses;
- Uncertainties related to insurance premium rate increases and
business retention;
- Changes in insurance regulations that impact our ability to
write and/or cease writing insurance policies in one or more
states;
- The effects of data privacy or cyber security laws and
regulations on our operations;
- Major defect or failure in our internal controls or information
technology and application systems that result in harm to our brand
in the marketplace, increased senior executive focus on crisis and
reputational management issues and/or increased expenses,
particularly if we experience a significant privacy breach;
- Recent federal financial regulatory reform provisions that
could pose certain risks to our operations;
- Our ability to maintain favorable ratings from rating agencies,
including AM Best, Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and
Fitch;
- Our entry into new markets and businesses; and
- Other risks and uncertainties we identify in filings with the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but
not limited to, our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic
reports.
These risk factors may not be exhaustive. We operate in a
continually changing business environment, and new risk factors
that we cannot predict or assess may emerge from time-to-time.
Selective's SEC filings can be accessed through the Investors
page of Selective's website, www.Selective.com, or through the
SEC's EDGAR Database at www.sec.gov
(Selective EDGAR CIK No. 0000230557).
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/selective-announces-planned-transition-of-non-executive-chairperson-gregory-e-murphy-301441784.html
SOURCE Selective Insurance Group, Inc.