In 2020, CNA had an underlying combined ratio of 93.1% compared to 94.8% in 2019 and 95.4% in 2018.
That represents a more than 2 point improvement over two years reflecting progress in both the expense and loss ratios.
Earlier today, CNA declared a special dividend of $0.75 in addition to raising its quarterly common dividend to $0.38 per share.
CNA paid total dividends of around 90% of its 2020 earnings.
Boardwalk has completed the recontracting of its pipelines originally put into service between 2008 and 2010.
During 2020, the Company added approximately $1.3 billion of new contracts and the contractual backlog ended the year at over $9 billion or seven times Boardwalk's annual 2020 revenues.
Boardwalk reported EBITDA of $819 million for the year, essentially flat from 2019.
In February, the Company had occupancy rates of around 80% for its owned and joint venture hotels.
By April, only three of these hotels were operational and occupancy rates had plummeted to about 9%.
During December of 2020, occupancy rates for owned and JV hotels that were operational had risen to almost 38% with 22 out of 27 Loews Hotels once again welcoming guests.
Loews, CNA and Boardwalk each issued $500 million in bonds between May and August of 2020, taking advantage of the low rates available in the credit markets.
Altium Packaging completed a debt recapitalization in January of 2021, which resulted in a $199 million payment to Loews basically returning a third of our equity and we still own a 100% of the business.
We provided about $150 million to Loews Hotels in 2020 to help it right out the effects of COVID on the hospitality industry.
During the fourth quarter, we purchased almost 6 million shares of Loews stock for about $244 million while preserving ample liquidity and ending the quarter with about $3.5 billion in cash.
Over the course of the year, Loews repurchased nearly 22 million of our own shares for an average cost of below $42 per share, which is lower than Loews' current market price and considerably lower than what we believe to be the intrinsic value of the company.
Today we reported fourth quarter net income of $397 million or $1.45 per share compared to $217 million or $0.73 per share in last year's fourth quarter.
For the full year, we reported a net loss of $931 million or $3.32 per share while in 2019 our net income was $932 million or $3.07 per share.
CNA's net income contribution to Loews rose 42% to $346 million making up the bulk of our consolidated fourth quarter net income of $398 million.
Net written premium grew 12% year-over-year.
The combined ratio improved 2.1 points to 93.5 driven by lower expense and underlying loss ratios as well as reduced cat losses.
Boardwalk pipelines net income contribution rose from $48 million in last year's fourth quarter to $83 million which included $26 million after-tax of settlement proceeds related to a customer bankruptcy.
Fourth quarter net revenues excluding these proceeds were up 4% driven by growth projects recently placed into service.
Loews Hotels posted a net loss of $68 million in Q4 2020 versus a net loss last year of $59 million.
This year's net loss was caused by the continuing revenue challenges stemming from the pandemic with operating revenue, down 81% year-over-year.
In last year's fourth quarter, Loews Hotels incurred a $69 million after-tax charge from the impairment of two hotel properties as well as some pre-opening expenses on properties under development.
The fourth quarter of 2019 included a $38 million net loss from Diamond Offshore.
We reported a net loss of $931 million or $3.32 per share.
Diamond filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 26, 2020.
Through that date, Diamond had contributed net losses of $476 million to Loews mainly attributable to rig impairment charges.
Further because of the bankruptcy filing, in the second quarter, we deconsolidated Diamond, wrote down the carrying value of our investment in the Company and booked a $957 million after-tax investment loss.
In total, Diamond accounted for $1.43 billion of net losses to Loews in 2020.
Loews Hotels has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with operating revenue, down 71% for the full year.
Similarly, income in joint ventures swung from positive $69 million in 2019 to a $73 million loss in 2020.
This dramatic change in Loews Hotels operating environment caused the Company to incur a net loss of $212 million for the year.
CNA booked pre-tax catastrophe losses of $550 million in 2020, up from $179 million in 2019.
Weather related events comprised 50% of the year's cat losses with COVID-19 and civil unrest making up the remainder.
The negative year-over-year impact to Loews of CNA's unusually elevated catastrophe losses was $262 million after-tax.
This accounted for $148 million decline in Loews' net income.
Similarly, the Loews parent company's net investment income declined $141 million after-tax, driven mainly by lower returns on LP and equity investments.
This swing reduced our net income by $60 million.
In total, these items, cat losses net investment income at CNA and Loews and CNA's net investment losses accounted for a year-over-year decline in Loews' net income of $611 million.
Net written premium increased 6% on the back of new business growth, solid retention and rate increases averaging 11%.
The underlying combined ratio for the full year, which excludes cat losses and prior year development was $93.1 million down from $94.8 million in 2019, with improvement in both the loss and expense ratios.
All of this led to a 38% increase in pre-tax underlying underwriting income.
Net operating revenues excluding the settlement proceeds from a customer bankruptcy in each year were down less than 1% reflecting the last vestiges of expirations and renewals at lower rates of long-term contracts put in place 10 plus years ago.
Altium Packaging, which is included in our corporate segment had a strong year operationally with revenues up almost 10% driven by organic growth, new business, exceptional results in its recycled plastics business, the full year impact of acquisitions made in 2019 and higher year-over-year resin prices.
Last week, Altium completed a recapitalization, issuing a $1.05 billion seven-year secured term loan.
The proceeds of which went to refinance its existing debt and pay Loews' a dividend of $199 million.
As a reminder, our initial equity investment in Altium was slightly more than $600 million.
The parent company portfolio of cash and investments stood at $3.5 billion at year-end, with about 77% in cash and equivalents.
During the fourth quarter, we received $192 million in dividends from our subsidiaries, $90 million from CNA, and $102 million from Boardwalk, which represented Boardwalk's only dividend to Loews in 2020.
For the full year, we received total dividends of $947 million from CNA and Boardwalk.
Today, CNA declared a $0.75 per share special dividend and a regular quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share up a penny from $0.37.
Combining the two, Loews will receive $275 million in dividends from CNA this quarter as well as the $199 million received from Altium last week.
We repurchased 5.8 million shares in the fourth quarter for $244 million and 22 million shares during the full year for $917 million.
Since year-end, we have repurchased an additional 2.2 million shares for a total of $100 million.

Summary:
Today we reported fourth quarter net income of $397 million or $1.45 per share compared to $217 million or $0.73 per share in last year's fourth quarter.