Hotels and pipelines drive Loews profits higher as insurance underwriting softens

Hotels and pipelines drive Loews profits higher as insurance underwriting softens

Mon, August 3, 2026 at 2:43 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• L -0.23%
• CNA -1.18%

Loews Corp (NYSE:L), the New York-listed conglomerate with interests in insurance, pipelines, hotels and packaging, reported second-quarter net income of $444 million as its smaller businesses picked up the slack from a weakening insurance market.

That compares with $391 million a year earlier, with earnings per share rising to $2.16 from $1.87.

Revenue for the three months to 30 June increased to $4.73 billion from $4.56 billion.

The sharpest improvement came at Loews Hotels, where net income jumped 71% to $48 million from $28 million, helped by higher room rates and occupancy at its Universal Orlando Resort properties and a refurbished Miami Beach hotel.

Boardwalk Pipelines, which transports natural gas, contributed $100 million against $88 million, benefiting from higher contracting rates and increased product sales.

CNA Financial, the commercial insurer that accounts for the bulk of group revenue, delivered $294 million to Loews compared with $274 million, though the gain came from investment income rather than the underwriting business itself.

CNA's property and casualty combined ratio, a measure of claims and expenses as a proportion of premiums where a figure below 100% indicates an underwriting profit, deteriorated by 2.4 percentage points to 96.5%.

The underlying loss ratio climbed to 64.1% from 61.5%, which the company attributed to rising claims costs and weaker pricing in certain lines.

Book value per share rose to $93.52 at the end of June from $90.71 at the close of 2025.

Loews bought back 1.4 million shares during the quarter at a cost of $146 million, continuing a long-running programme that has substantially reduced the share count over the past two decades.

The parent company held $4.4 billion in cash and investments against $1.8 billion of debt at the quarter end.

Shares were little changed in pre-market trading in New York.

The results are among the first full-year reporting cycles overseen by Benjamin Tisch, who took over as chief executive in January 2025 from James Tisch, now chairman.