Loews Corporation is an American conglomerate headquartered in New York City. The company's majority-stake holdings include CNA Financial Corporation, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, and Loews Hotels.
The corporation positions itself as a value investor with a long-term focus. In recent years, Loews has also allocated significant capital for share buybacks. In the three years ended December 31, 2012, Loews spent $1.3 billion repurchasing shares. Between 1971 and 2012, the corporation reduced its shares outstanding from 1.3 billion shares to 392 million shares.
Loews Corporation traces its roots to 1946, when Laurence Tisch persuaded his parents to invest $125,000 to buy a resort hotel in Lakewood, N.J. Laurence’s brother Robert joined the business shortly thereafter. The Tisch brothers began to invest their profits in an expanding hotel business. By 1956, the brothers were in a position to build their first hotel, the Americana in Bal Harbour, Fla., for $17 million in cash.