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nwoodman

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Loews has done nothing during the best time to do something  - 2008 though 2010.

Now they are selling an asset they lost millions on....

 

Highmount, bad investment. BWP in the dog house. Why does everyone act like the Tisch kids know how to invest?

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I don't think anyone does act like they can invest with the exceptions of CNBC (Jim Tisch's airtime / alpha ratio is off the charts), and the mutual funds that have held on forever without questioning the brothers Tisch (at least publicly)

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

they paid $4B, consisting of $2.4B of cash and $1.6B of debt (at Highmount level, not parent). I believe all of highmount's earnings have been retained (no dividends to Loews), unsure if there have been additional capital contributions. As of the latest 10-Q, Highount has 1.3B of assets  and 778MM of equity, but only $226MM when you exclude the deferred tax asset created from the impairments. 

 

So the pre-tax loss is about $2.2B over the years (unless i'm missing some point where they dividended money from highmount to parent, I've only followed since 2010, and i may have forgotten something).  i've always valued it at "more than zero" because it's a small piece.

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  • 3 weeks later...

•Loews trades at a significant discount to the sum of its parts.

•No rationale exists for existing conglomerate structure.

•Poor capital allocation decisions by Loews' senior management over past decade have caused share underperformance.

•Poor corporate governance practices exist which are in dire need of reform.

•Single class of voting shares means large activist(s) could unlock billions of dollars of hidden value in Loews shares.

 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2458265-loews-corporation-an-underperforming-conglomerate-in-search-of-an-activist

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  • 2 weeks later...

I held Loews some years back shortly after they got out of Lorilard tracking holding position.

 

I wasn't impress with the cash build and 2-4 mil share buybacks...I like the businesses ok just felt like others here that they were not willing to do much to add value other than buy back token amounts of stock.

 

anyway like their annual reports and things seem to be better now with cna insurance.

 

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In Loews balance sheet in 2014 10K, shareholder's equity is $19,458.  The line below says $5,448 non-controlling interests.  When looking at book value, should one follow $19,458 or add $5,448?    What is the value of $5,448 to an investor.  Would love the help.  thanks.

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  • 10 months later...

Just thought i'd update if anyone out there cares. I don't own. The pace of buybacks appears to be picking up.

 

Current valuation of 0.7X Book and 0.8X NAV marking Hotels @ $1B  (very rough guesstimate, don't put a lot of time into analyzing this company anymore ). 37% of market cap in cash and investments (25% net of debt).

 

Will consider buying with additional de-rating to 60-70% of NAV. 20% discount doesn't get me there.

 

The valuation of BWP and DO has gone down a lot and is now more reflective of each of their struggles, which makes it a little better.

Loews.PNG.6ea036e11f44aa6de75f45b5c3f8d034.PNG

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  • 2 months later...

I think most here tend to ignore Loews, likely out of frustration with capital allocation.... but has anyone noticed the major ramp up in share repurchases as the stock has declined?

 

At this price, the stock would need to rise 40% just to reach book value.

 

 

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It's a tough company to hold for any length of time.  I also owned Loews in the 1990s and watched them bet against internet / high tech stocks. Since I'd bought one of the first ever internet companies around 1994/95 and lost on that investment I was biased in favour of Loews short selling. They started too soon and so had to quit too soon. (A Hussman like experience. :-)  )  Then I bought cash rich Loews again in the run up to the 2008/2009 collapse because of their history of contrarian actions. All they did with their cash was to deal with CNA.  No other significant opportunistic buying took place on their part and I'd have been better off keeping that cash and then buying myself in the crisis. 

 

 

One to read:

 

 

Here's some teaser quotes...

 

LOEWS' LARRY TISCH: THE ULTIMATE BEAR

 

Loews' chief insists that his short-selling, which has been disastrous so far, will be vindicated in the end

 

 

''Don't get me wrong. It's not pleasant. I'm not happy about [the losses],'' says Tisch. ''Look, I've been wrong so far.'' But he defends his shorting strategies as a proper activity for a public company with major securities positions: ''In the long run, I think we are doing the prudent thing.''

 

EXCESSES. So what gives Tisch the courage to continue along this bloody path? After weathering several market downturns, Loews' CEO insists that the market's current valuations are far beyond the extremes reached before the crash of 1929. Tisch points out that the NASDAQ index trades at a multiple of 70 times earnings, when the normal price-earnings ratio, according to him, should be about 18 times.

 

Tisch is convinced that the corporate-accounting excesses of the 1990s will finally come home to roost. He questions the quality of earnings, pointing to such things as the overuse of write-offs, the wholesale granting of stock options, and the very generous use of accounting to inflate earnings.

 

...

 

 

Tisch has plenty of defenders. Warren E. Buffett, chief of Omaha's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A), is one. ''While I don't try to time the market much myself,'' says Buffett, an old friend of Tisch, ''I hope Loews shareholders behave in the same way that I hope Berkshire Hathaway shareholders behave--and that is you look at a batting average over time...all nine innings.''

 

 

 

http://www.businessweek.com/1998/23/b3581104.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Did everyone catch this: "much"

 

 

 

" ''While I don't try to time the market much myself,'' says Buffett,... "

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Mary Buffett?  That was Warren Buffett:

 

''While I don't try to time the market much myself,'' says Buffett, an old friend of Tisch, ''I hope Loews shareholders behave in the same way that I hope Berkshire Hathaway shareholders behave--and that is you look at a batting average over time...all nine innings.''"

 

And that was Warren Buffett in bonds and/or treasuries prior to the global credit crisis. I'd have to look it up but in late 2008 (or maybe 2009) he stated that in his personal account he had $600 million available to invest into the market.

 

 

 

Anyway, back to Loews - I just learned a bit of trivia - that Loews has a position in Comstock (LODE). 

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Yeah I wasn't quite sure how that Mary reference developed, and that's why I continued on and said:

 

 

And that was Warren Buffett in bonds and/or treasuries prior to the global credit crisis. I'd have to look it up but in late 2008 (or maybe 2009) he stated that in his personal account he had $600 million available to invest into the market.

 

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