Darren Daugherty – Director of Investor Relations James S. Tisch – Chief Executive Officer and President Peter W. Keegan – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

David Edelman – Morgan Stanley Andy Baker – Jefferies & Company Stephen Velgot – Fig Partners, LLC Joshua Jones - Robeco Boston Partners

To welcome everyone to the Loews' Fourth Quarter 2008 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Darren Daugherty, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Loews Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2008 Earnings Conference Call. A copy of the earnings release may be found on our website, lowes.com. On the call this morning are Jim Tisch, the Chief Executive Officer of Loews', and Peter Keegan, the Chief Financial Officer of Loews'. Before we begin, I'd like to make a few brief disclosures concerning forward-looking statements. This conference call will include the use of statements that are forward-looking in nature. Actual results achieved by the company may differ materially from those projections made in any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect circumstances at the time they are made, and the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. This disclaimer is only a brief summary of the company's statutory forward-looking statements disclaimer. We urge you to read the full disclaimer, which is included in the company's 10-K and 10-Q filings with the SEC. I'd also like to remind you that during this call today, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our security filings for reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures. After Jim and Peter have discussed our results, we'll have a question and answer session. If you would like to ask questions and are listening through the webcast, please use the dial in number to participate, 877-692-2592. I will now turn the call over to Loews' Chief Executive Officer, Jim Tisch.

Thank you John and good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. As you have seen in our press release this morning, Loews reported a $958 million loss from continuing operations for the fourth quarter and a $182 million loss for the full year. Both of these figures include realized investment losses at CNA and non-cash impairment charges at HighMount Exploration & Production. While these results come as a disappointment, we are fully confident in each of our businesses and their ability to deliver solid earnings over the longer term. Let me quickly review the performance of our subsidiaries. CNA is performing well in its core property and casualty business, with its continued focus on underwriting discipline, claims efficiency, and expense management. In its core property and casualty operation, which includes specialty and standard lines, CNA reported a combined ratio of 89.1 in the fourth quarter, and was aided by 11.8 points of favorable reserve development. The full year combined ratio was 98.0, including 4.4 points of favorable development, offset by 5.7 points of catastrophe losses. CNA's other key operating metrics of premium, rate, and retention in its core property and casualty operations all reflect the company's solid market position. CNA's investment portfolio has been bruised, but its capital position and the reserves are solid. CNA continues to generate significant positive cash flow and possesses a high degree of liquidity, including at year end, more than $500 million in short-term investments at the CNA holding company level. Furthermore, liquidity is not an issue for CNA's insurance companies because of their strong operating cash flow and because their investment assets and liabilities are well matched in terms of duration. CNA has the ability and the intention to hold it's available for sale unrealized loss securities until…

Thanks Jim and good morning everyone. For the fourth quarter, Loews reported a loss from continuing operations of $2.20 per share and for the full year a loss from continuing operations of $.0.38 per share. Our GAAP earnings of $9.05 per share for the full year include the non-cash gain related to the Lorillard separation and the after-tax gain from the sale of Bulova. Loews’ interest in CNA’s realized investment losses, after taxed and minority interest was $283 million for the quarter and $756 million for the full year. The losses include other than temporary impairments of $377 million for the quarter and $865 million for the full year. These impairments relate primarily to corporate and other taxable bonds, asset backed bonds and non-redeemable preferred equity securities. CNA contributed a net loss of $15 million to Loews’ net operating income for the quarter, versus income of $201 in the fourth quarter 2007. For the full year, CNA contributed operating income of $488 million to Loews’ net operating results, versus $950 million in 2007. For the quarter, the decline in operating income primarily reflects lower investment income, which includes significant losses from limited partnership investments. For the year, the reduction in income from continuing operations primarily reflects lower investment income, as well as an increase in catastrophe losses of $169 million after tax and minority interest, versus the prior year. Diamond Offshore’s contribution to net income for the fourth quarter increased to $137 million from $76 million in the prior year fourth quarter. For the full year 2008 Diamond’s net income contribution increased to $612 million from $396 million in 2007. HighMount reported a fourth quarter loss of $717 million, which includes after-tax non-cash charges of $440 million related to the carrying value of HighMount’s proved reserves and a $314 million…

Operator, at this time we’ll open it up for questions.

(Operator instructions) Your first question is from the line of David Edelman – Morgan Stanley. David Edelman – Morgan Stanley: I just had one question which was, Jim, when you look at CNA’s fourth quarter performance and the marks that they’ve taken, is that performance within the range of expectations you internally had when you sized the preferred investment that you made, the billion and a quarter? And therefore, what’s the likelihood or the reasonable likelihood of CNA needing more capital support from Loews?

I am certainly hopeful that CNA will not need any more support from Loews. The investment was made in mid-November. The markets bottomed on December 15th and actually starting moving up between December 15th and the end of the year, and when you look at all of our capital ratios, they are indicative of a company that is in fine shape. So I cannot imagine the credit markets are going to such a level that – let me start over the credit markets today are at extraordinary levels in high yield, in mortgage-backed securities and it’s difficult for me to see them going dramatically lower from here. I guess anything is possible, but right now if you think that stocks are attractive, then you ought to take a look at what’s going on in the credit markets because there’s enormous amounts of value to be had there. David Edelman – Morgan Stanley: And then if I could just a second thing perhaps for Peter. Can you go through on page 8 of the release, the $123 million net income loss – the investment income loss in the fourth quarter – the principal components of that again are?

It’s all across the portfolio. The biggest piece of it is in our – we had less cash, one. We took a hit on our equity portfolio which at the beginning of the quarter was around $500 million and took a decline. Those are the two single biggest factors in the quarter. David Edelman – Morgan Stanley: Okay, thank you.

Your next question is from the line of Andy Baker Jeffries & Company. Andy Baker – Jeffries & Company: Just wondering if you could give us a little – some of your thoughts on the hotel industry going forward? Obviously, you talked about the tough market, so can you tell us a little bit how you’re reacting to the tough markets, both in the short run and then how you think the best way to react to these tough markets is over the long run?

Yes, well, first of all I would tell you that Congress has done a great job of killing the resort hotel business with the way they’ve criticized the number of financial firms from having conferences. In fact, I just heard this morning of another investor conference that was canceled by another major investment firm, because of fear of being criticized by members of Congress. So the current outlook for the business is certainly not good. As for Loews, we are – we have just as with our other businesses, we are hunkering down and cutting expenses where we can and we feel confident that our business, which is not highly levered at all, will get through this economic crisis. We are also expect that there will be a number of attractive hotel properties that are not able to make it through this economic storm that we’re in, and we will be looking to see what kind of attractive property acquisitions we can make in this environment. We believe that the world is cyclical and that when things go down, at some point they hit bottom and they go back up again, and right now we have the cash and the cash flow at the holding company level in order to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. Andy Baker – Jeffries & Company: If I could just drill down there a little bit. At the hotels – I mean is there – what sort of margin improvement do you think there is available to you in – from cost cutting measures alone? Is this something meaningful or is this more of a – the economy is largely going to drive this story and...

No, the economy is definitely going to drive this story, definitely. It’s – the hotel business is primarily a fixed cost business, because you’ve got to keep the lights on and the restaurants open and you have to keep people at the front desk, but nonetheless, you still have to have a focus on all of your costs and so that’s exactly what we’re doing and my guess is it’s what just about every other hotel operator is doing.

(Operator Instructions) Your next question is from the line of Steve Velgot Fig. Stephen Velgot – Fig Partners, LLC: Yes, a couple questions on High Mount. Could you give us an idea of what you’re thinking about for the drilling program, where prices are today and then I had a follow up question about the assessment you do in terms of valuation whether – is that something that’s typically done on a quarterly basis or more is it just extraordinary that you'd be considering looking at it again first quarter?

Well, first let’s talk about where we are in our drilling program. Currently, spot natural gas prices are at about $4.83 for March deliveries. That price is below the level that is economic for our nation as a whole to replace the gas that is being consumed, and so, what you’ve seen is a very significant decline in gas drilling rigs. They’ve gone from about $1,600 now down in a straight line to about $1,100 and they are still dropping. Analysts believe that they will probably have to go to $800 before the supply and demand equation changes. The good news is that there is a fairly rapid response to a decline in drilling rigs. The depletion rate in the United States is somewhere between 25 and 30%, so if all drilling were to stop, production would decline in the United States by about 30% over the coming year, so we need to do drilling just to maintain production, and my guess is that in order for us to – us as a nation to have enough incentive for people to drill, we need gas prices that are about $2.00 to $2.50 higher than the current levels. With that said there still are a few areas like Haynesville, where even at sub $5.00 gas it’s still profitable to drill. With respect to HighMount, we don’t operate in Haynesville and we don’t operate in any areas where on a fully allocated basis it makes sense to drill. So we are in the process of reducing the number of rigs that we have working for us, especially in Sonora, which is our largest field and we’re going to take a time out, assess the situation, and then we’ll – as the market improves, we’ll begin to drill once again. Stephen Velgot – Fig Partners, LLC: Okay and then just on the question of valuation and assessment, whether you would typically do that on more of annual basis or is the idea that there could potentially be another write-down first quarter. Is that something extraordinary or would you normally look at the valuation on a quarterly basis?

Ceiling tests you would look at it quarterly; the good will normally annually, but if you had a ceiling test impairment in any given quarter, you'd also probably look at the goodwill in that quarter. Stephen Velgot – Fig Partners, LLC: Okay.

So as I indicated in my comments, if gas prices stay where they are, which are 15% lower than where they were on December 31st, at least where they were last Friday, then it is possible that we’d have a ceiling test write-down in the first quarter. Stephen Velgot – Fig Partners, LLC: Right and then I suppose it’s possible that if natural gas were back to $7.00 or $8.00, that those assets could be written up?

They wouldn’t be written up but you’d – but the likely result is you'd have more proved reserves at the end of year because you’d have more wells that were economically producible. Stephen Velgot – Fig Partners, LLC: Okay, thank you.

You have a follow up question from the line of Andy Baker Jeffries & Company. Andy Baker – Jeffries & Company: Hi, thanks, just wanted to circle back to Boardwalk Pipeline. I mean we’re talking about another quarter of increasing the dividends. Just remind us about your thoughts on the value of a general partnership interest as those dividends particularly where you’re sort of triggers are that increase your percentage of the free cash flow?

Well we are currently receiving incentive payments – incentive distribution rights on our general partnership interest. We’re at the 25% level and we get to the 50% level once the distribution gets to $0.525. Andy Baker – Jeffries & Company: And do you see their current capital needs, obviously the increases have slowed over time, increases to their dividend, how do you – how long do you see their current extension and in capital needs negatively impacting their ability to raise the dividend more quickly?

Well the capital program is just about over. As I said in my comments, Boardwalk had in place a $4.8 billion capital program that we think that the company will need to raise less than $500 million, and that at least half of that amount that it needs to raise would be equity. So, my sense is that there should not be significant pressure on the thought from its need to raise equity over the coming quarters. Beyond that, Boardwalk is looking at a few different opportunities that should serve to increase its cash flow, but will not require significant amounts of capital in order to be able to do that. So, I mean I don't know if you're asking when will the dividends for Boardwalk accelerate from here, I don't know that I can answer that for you, but I can tell you that there are opportunities for Boardwalk, number one, and number two, that the weight of equity offerings has been dramatically mitigated.

Your next question comes from Josh Jones - Robeco Boston Partners.

Related to HighMount, was absent price-related revisions was your reserve replacement greater than 100% last year? - Robeco Boston Partners: Related to HighMount, was absent price-related revisions was your reserve replacement greater than 100% last year?

I think it was about 100%.

Okay and so of the 300 BCF decline, was a lot of that related to proved undeveloped locations, or was it some proved developed? - Robeco Boston Partners: Okay and so of the 300 BCF decline, was a lot of that related to proved undeveloped locations, or was it some proved developed?

Could we get back to you a little later on that?

Sure. That would be great. Thank you very much. - Robeco Boston Partners: Sure. That would be great. Thank you very much.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the floor back over to Mr. Darren Daugherty for any closing remarks.

Thank you for joining us on the call today. A replay and a downloadable MP3 file will be available on our Website loews.com in approximately two hours. That concludes today's call.

Thank you for participating in today's Loews' Fourth Quarter 2008 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.