[ The transcript was presubmitted by Loews Corporation. No live call was conducted for the first quarter earnings call. ] Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings report. Loews had an exceptional quarter, reporting net income of $457 million or $2.05 per share compared to net income of $375 million or $1.61 per share in the first quarter of 2023. The more-than-20% year-over-year increase in net income is due to strong results at CNA and Boardwalk, as well as higher net investment income at the parent company. While Jane will provide more details about our resultsin her remarks, I wanted to highlight CNA's stellar first quarter. We were pleased to see that the company reported underlying underwriting income in excess of $200 million for the fourth quarter in a row. CNA's results also included a 16% year-over-year increase in net investment income due to higher reinvestment rates and improved LP and common stock results. While the LP and common stock portfolios are subject to yearly fluctuations, we expect higher yields in the fixed income portfolio to be a tailwind for the foreseeable future. For the remainder of my remarks, I'd like to review three headlines: executive changes at Boardwalk Pipelines, new developments at Loews Hotels and share repurchases. A few weeks ago, Boardwalk announced that Stan Horton will retire as CEO in June and will be succeeded by Scott Hallam, who is currently the company's President and Chief Operating Officer. Stan will retain his position on Boardwalk's Board of Directors and Scott will also join Boardwalk's Board. Stan joined Boardwalk in 2011 and has been instrumental in guiding the company through significant growth and transformation, establishing it as a key player in the midstream industry. We are deeply grateful for Stan's leadership and expertise, which -- in…

For the first quarter of 2024, Loews reported net income of $457 million or $2.05 per share, compared with net income of $375 million or $1.61 per share in last year's first quarter. This yearover-year increase was driven by higher income at CNA and Boardwalk, as well as higher investment income at the parent company. Book value per share increased from $70.69 at the end of 2023 to $72.87 at the end of 2024's first quarter, and book value per share excluding AOCI increased from $81.92 at the end of 2023 to $83.68 at the end of the first quarter. These increases were driven by strong earnings in the first quarter. CNA had an excellent first quarter, contributing net income of $310 million to Loews, which represents an increase of $42 million compared to $268 million in the first quarter of last year. The year-over-year increase was driven by higher net investment income and higher underlying underwriting income, offset by greater catastrophe losses. CNA's net investment income increased 16% compared to the first quarter of 2023 as a result of improved LP and common stock returns as well as favorable reinvestment rates on fixed income securities. LP and common stock income increased by $40 million over last year's first quarter. Fixed income results benefited from a more than 10-basis point increase in pre-tax yields to 4.7%. As Jim mentioned, CNA produced another quarter of robust underlying underwriting income, which was driven by continued profitable growth. Net earned and net written Property & Casualty premiums increased by 9% and 6%, respectively, compared with the first quarter of 2023. Written premium growth was driven by four points of rate, two points of exposure growth and strong retention at 85%. CNA's combined ratio increased by 0.7 points to 94.6% in the first quarter…

Investor Q&A Every quarter, we encourage shareholders to send us questions in advance of earnings that they would like us to answer in our remarks. Please see below for the questions we have received, along with some additional questions we found relevant. Jim, how will data centers impact natural gas demand and Boardwalk?

Growth in artificial intelligence has driven and should continue to drive a proliferation of data centers, creating a substantial uptick in U.S. electricity demand. Incremental demand from data centers also coincides with pressure on the grid from the adoption of electric cars and the onshoring of certain manufacturing facilities. Therefore, after more than a decade of stagnation, electricity demand may grow as much as 20% by the end of this decade. The increase in power demand cannot be met by renewables alone given issues with intermittency, land use and permitting new transmission lines. Therefore, new natural gas-fired power plants will need to be constructed. Boardwalk is already seeing attractive growth projects from new power plants that are being built near its pipeline system.

Jane, how has the higher interest rate environment impacted Loews Hotels?

The higher interest rate environment has not materially impacted Loews Hotels' ability to refinance its properties, due in large part to its staggered maturities. That being said, the hotel company anticipates that higher rates may impact interest expense as loans mature. However, as the company replaces construction loans with permanent financing, it will likely benefit from lower spreads. It is important to keep in mind that while higher interest rates are a headwind for Loews Hotels, they are actually a tailwind for Loews Corp overall. As a 92% owner of CNA, Loews benefits from the higher rates that CNA earns on its $47 billion investment portfolio.

Jim, are there any updates on the Boardwalk litigation?

In December of 2022 the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Delaware Court of Chancery's ruling in favor of the former Boardwalk minority unitholders. The Delaware Court of Chancery held oral arguments on April 12th regarding unresolved issues that the Delaware Supreme Court remanded back to the lower court. We expect a decision from the Chancery Court later this year. Loews has the ability to appeal any unfavorable decision back to the Delaware Supreme Court.