David B. Edelson
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Loews
Thank you, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Today we reported fourth quarter net income of $343 million or $1.37 per share, compared to $397 million or $1.45 per share in last year's fourth quarter. For the full-year, we reported net income of $1.58 billion or $6.07 per share, while in 2020 we posted a net loss of $931 million or $3.32 per share. I will briefly review our fourth quarter results and then turn to the full-year. The year-over-year decline in our fourth quarter net income obscured impressive operating improvements at CNA and Boardwalk Pipelines, as well as a continued rebound at Loews Hotels.
Underwriting results in CNA's core P&C business were outstanding. CNA's pre-tax underwriting gain rose 13% on the back of an 8% increase in net earned premium and a 50 basis point year-over-year improvement in the combined ratio to 92.9%. The underlying combined ratio, which excludes catastrophe losses and prior-year development improved 1.4 points to 91.2% in this year's fourth quarter. CNA's consolidated net investment income was basically flat, compared to the prior year quarter. By segment, it was higher in Life & Group and lower in P&C and Corporate.
The decline in CNA's year-over-year contribution to our net income was mainly, due to lower net investment gains, as well as to the Life & Group and Corporate segments. Investment gains were significant in last year's Q4, driven mainly by the mark-to-market on CNA's holdings of non-redeemable preferred stock, gains were de minimis this year. In the Life & Group segment, the long-term care block experienced slightly adverse morbidity trends this year after experiencing favorable morbidity last year.
And in the Corporate segment aside from the previously mentioned drop in net investment income two other factors contributed to the year-over-year decline. A higher non-economic charge relating to CNA's loss portfolio transfer with National Indemnity, an unfavorable net prior year development on legacy mass tort exposures. The bottom line is that CNA had another strong quarter and its core P&C underwriting business with all its segments, specialty, commercial and international reporting strong premium growth and improved year-over-year, underlying combined ratios.
Boardwalk Pipelines net income contribution declined from $83 million in last year's fourth quarter to $65 million. Last year's Q4 results included $26 million after-tax of settlement proceeds related to a customer bankruptcy. Absent this non-recurring item Boardwalk's net income contribution increased year-over-year, driven by revenue from growth projects recently placed in service and higher system utilization.
Loews Hotels continued its strong rebound posting net income of $37 million versus a net loss of $68 million in Q4 2020. Please note, however, that net income in the quarter benefited by $26 million from the acceleration of government grant payments used to retire outstanding debt prior to maturity for our recent development project. Loews Hotels adjusted EBITDA, which excludes unusual items and is defined in our earnings supplement was $64 million in Q4, up markedly from a $27 million loss in Q4 2020.
As you can see on Page 11 of our earnings supplement, occupancy was about double last year's fourth quarter and essentially flat with the third quarter. Average daily rate rose 24% over last year's fourth quarter. And with all hotel properties fully opened during the quarter, available rooms were 44% higher than Q4 2020.
Before turning to the full-year, one last observation on the quarterly comparison. The parent company investment portfolio generated less income in the fourth quarter than in the prior-year period, driven by lower returns on our holdings of equities and limited partnership investments. For full-year '21, we reported net income of $1.58 billion, a sharp rebound from last year's net loss of $931 million, excluding the second quarter gain on the deconsolidation of Altium Packaging, our net income for 2021 was $1.14 billion.
CNA and Boardwalk posted strong operating results and Loews Hotels experienced a dramatic rebound from 2020s dismal pandemic induced results. CNA contributed almost $1.1 billion to our 2021 net income. The core P&C business experienced strong earned premium growth and a combined ratio of 96.2%, almost 4 points better than the prior year. The decline in the combined ratio was driven by a 1.5 point improvement in the expense ratio and lower catastrophe losses. The underlying combined ratio improved 1.7 points to 91.4%.
CNA's net investment income was boyd by strong returns on limited partnership and common stock investments. Both the P&C and Life & Group segments benefited from the strong returns. Net investment gains also contributed to the year-over-year increase in CNA's net income. The Company swung from losses last year to after-tax gains of almost $100 million this year. The Life & Group segment benefited from good underlying results and an uplift in net investment income, driven by LP investments. Additionally, for the year the segment experienced a $38 million pre-tax net reserve release versus pre-tax net reserve charges of $83 million in the prior year. Reserve actions in both years related mostly to the Company's long-term care book of business.
CNA's Corporate segment showed a year-over-year earnings decline, due to several factors, including lower net investment income, a larger non-economic charge related to CNA's loss portfolio transfer with National Indemnity and higher unfavorable net prior year development on legacy mass tort exposures. CNA ended the year with total assets of $67 billion, a $50 billion investment portfolio, stockholders' equity of $12.8 billion and book value per share of $47.20. CNA's balance sheet remains rock solid, as decision to pay a $2 special dividend and raise its regular quarterly dividend by 5% is further evidence of CNA's confidence in its financial position.
Boardwalk pipelines contributed $235 million to our '21 net income, up from $206 million in 2020, excluding the $26 million customer bankruptcy settlement proceeds received last year, Boardwalk's net income contribution increased $55 million year-over-year. Boardwalk's EBITDA, which is defined in our earnings supplement was $843 million in 2021 versus $785 million last year, excluding the settlement proceeds.
Boardwalk's year-over-year earnings improvement, excluding the settlement proceeds was driven by a 6%-plus increase in net operating revenues against a 4% increase in operating expenses, including depreciation and amortization, a reduction in interest expense offset higher depreciation and amortization from growth projects recently placed into service.
Turning to Loews Hotels and it's dramatic improvement over 2020. Loews Hotels contributed a pre-tax loss of $12 million versus a $274 million loss in 2020, both periods included non-recurring items such as impairments, gains on sale, and the previously mentioned acceleration of a government grant. Stripping these out Loews Hotels pre-tax loss declined from $261 million in 2020 to a loss of $44 million in '21. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes all these non-recurring items swung from a loss of $103 million in 2022 to earnings of $135 million in 2021. All properties contributed to this dramatic increase with the Universal Orlando Resort leading the charge.
Loews Hotels business strengthened as the year progressed, as measured by occupancy, average daily rate, RevPAR and of course, adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $13 million in Q1, followed by $25 million in Q2, $59 million in Q3 and $64 million this past quarter.
Turning now to our Corporate segment. Let me unpack the numbers for you. Net investment income increased year-over-year, driven by higher returns on equities and limited partnership investments. Corporate expenses were flat year-over-year with higher interest expense offset by lower other corporate expenses. Corporate also includes the operating results of Altium, which were consolidated through Q1 '21 and then once the consolidated have been accounted for under the equity method. Certain non-recurring items related to the 2021 recapitalization of Altium and the sale of a 47% stake are booked in corporate as well.
Finally, Corporate includes two large unusual items. In 2021, a $438 million after-tax gain on the deconsolidation of Altium Packaging, following our sale of a 47% stake and in 2020, a $957 million after-tax loss on the deconsolidation of Diamond Offshore precipitated by its bankruptcy filing. Our 2020, consolidated results also include a $476 million net operating loss attributable to Diamond Offshore, which represented our share of diamonds results, up to the deconsolidation date. Excluding Diamond's impact on 2020 and the Altium gain in '21, our net income more than doubled from $502 million last year to $1.14 billion in 2021.
Now for the parent company. The parent company portfolio of cash and investments stood at $3.45 billion at year-end, with about 77% in cash and equivalents. During the fourth quarter, we received a $194 million in dividends from our subsidiaries, $92 million from CNA and $102 million from Boardwalk, which represented Boardwalk's only dividend to Loews in 2021.
For the full-year, we received dividends of $550 million from CNA and $102 million from Boardwalk and $199 million dividend from Altium as part of its recapitalization. We also received net pre-tax proceeds of $411 million, upon the sale of a 47% stake in Altium. Based on today's CNA dividend declarations Loews will receive a total of $584 million in special and regular dividends from CNA this quarter. We repurchased 5.4 million shares in the fourth quarter for $306 million and 21 million shares during all of '21 for $1.13 billion, since year-end our share repurchase activity has been negligible.
I will now hand the call back to Mary. Thank you.