I could not have asked for a better partner than Andy who has served Loews with complete dedication for the last 50 years.
The company's underlying combined ratio decreased by 1.5 points, driven by the expense ratio, which was 30.7% compared to 31.8% in the prior year quarter.
The underlying loss ratio was also lower at 60.2% compared to 60.5% in the prior year.
CNA's P&C gross written premiums increased by 10% and net written premiums increased by 5%.
CNA had pre-tax investment income of $513 million, pretty much flat with the prior year's quarter.
When it opens in early 2024, the hotel will have 888 rooms and over 250,000 square feet of meeting and event space.
The two Arlington Hotels combined will offer nearly 1,200 guestrooms and more than 300,000 square feet of meeting and event space and these properties offer unique local experiences and are equally attractive to leisure and good customers.
For the third quarter, the occupancy rate for owned and joint venture hotels was almost 72% as opposed to about 35% in the first quarter of this year.
Our resort hotels continue to do considerably better than our properties in urban settings, and about 60% of Loews Hotels' rooms are in resort destinations.
The company currently has $9 billion of revenue backlog with a weighted average contract life of seven years.
From July 1 through last Friday, we repurchased 6.2 million shares of Loews common stock for just over $337 million.
Year-to-date, we've bought back 15.7 million shares for $830 million, which is 5.85% of the shares outstanding at the beginning of the year.
For the third quarter, Loews reported net income of $220 million or $0.85 per share compared to net income of $139 million or $0.50 per share in last year's third quarter.
CNA contributed net income of $229 million, up from $192 million in Q3 2020.
The combination of a 6% increase in net earned premium and a 1.5 point improvement in the underlying combined ratio led to a 27% increase in CNA's underlying underwriting gain, which excludes cat losses and prior year development.
Net cat losses in the quarter were $178 million pre-tax, including $114 million for Hurricane Ida.
Last year's Q3 cat losses were modestly lower at $160 million pre-tax driven by three Southeast hurricanes and the Midwest derecho.
CNA's expense ratio, which just a few years ago hovered in the mid-30s, came in below 31%, down from 31.8% in Q3 2020 and 31.6% last quarter.
This is the lowest expense ratio posted by CNA in about 13 years.
Last year, the company booked a net reserve charge of $83 million pre-tax for its long-term care and structured settlement books of business.
This year, the comparable number was a net reserve release of $38 million pre-tax as CNA had no change in its long-term care active life reserve, a $40 million pre-tax release from its long-term care claims reserve, and a de minimis charge related to structured settlements.
CNA ended the quarter with total assets of $66.5 billion, shareholders' equity of $12.7 billion and consolidated statutory surplus of approximately $11.1 billion.
Boardwalk contributed net income of $38 million, up from $20 million in Q3 2020.
Boardwalk's EBITDA, which is shown and defined in our quarterly earnings supplement, was $186 million in the quarter and $635 million year-to-date.
Through nine months, natural gas transportation throughput increased by more than 11% year-over-year across the system.
Loews Hotels contributed net income of $13 million; a dramatic improvement from the $47 million net loss posted in Q3 2020.
Adjusted EBITDA, which is defined in our earnings supplement and excludes non-recurring items, rebounded from a $38 million loss last year to a positive $59 million in Q3 2021; close to $100 million swing.
The year-over-year improvement was driven by a dramatic revenue increase as all properties, including all 9,000 rooms at the Universal Orlando Resort, were open for the full quarter.
This was the first time all 9,000 rooms in Orlando were open for a full quarter.
On Page 11 of our quarterly earnings supplement, there is a good snapshot of Loews Hotels year-over-year and sequential operational improvement, which highlights the drivers of the company's revenue increases during this COVID period.
We have invested $32 million in Loews Hotels year-to-date, all in the first quarter.
The parent company's investment portfolio generated a pre-tax net investment loss of $30 million as compared to income of $23 million last year.
The parent company portfolio of cash and investments stood at $3.6 billion at quarter end with about 80% in cash and equivalents.
During the quarter, as Jim mentioned, we repurchased 6.2 million shares of our common stock for $333 million and we received about $92 million in dividends from CNA.
After quarter end, we spent less than $5 million repurchasing our stock.
As of last Friday, there were under 254 million shares of Loews common stock outstanding, down about 6% since the beginning of the year and about 25% over the past five years.

Summary:
For the third quarter, Loews reported net income of $220 million or $0.85 per share compared to net income of $139 million or $0.50 per share in last year's third quarter.