John Hjorth

Wow! Bumping this topic has been like knocking a hole in the Hower Dam! :D

I am sure! :P Odense, Denmark

Purchases of equity securities end of June 2013 : $6.052M [Gross][excluding Heinz] Purchases of equity securities end of March 2013: $1.401M [Gross] => Purchases of equity securities second quarter 2013: $4.641M [Gross][excluding Heinz] Cost basis of equity securities commercial, industrial and others end of June 2013: $28.272M [excluding Heinz] Cost basis of equity securities commercial, industrial and others end of March 2013: $24.341 => Increase in cost basis of equity securities commercial, industrial and others second quarter 2013: $3.931M [excluding Heinz] The Q2 13F-HR will be out in a few days, and it will for sure be interesting reading, and might or might not reveal the answer to what the three capital allocators have been up to!

It's available now at : http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/qtrly/links2ndqtr13.html .

Off topic: Ladies and Gentlemen [if there are any ladies posting in this topic within the last posts?], The discussion contained in the last posts in this topic by writser, Palantir, ERICOPOLY, Heilko & Birdman23i is in my opinion certainly worth a separate topic in the General Discussion Forum of its own! I hereby suggest one of you to pick this discussion up buy starting a separate topic in the General Discussion Forum. Personally, I'm sure it will be reading of interest to many board members! -Thanks in advance, because I hope you all pick this suggestion up! [i have also been buying books about roses lately, btw...] -And now back to topic again-again!

Can you tell us how you know the reserves are real? No. From my point of view I haven't paid anything for my fraction of the value of the reserves because the discount on the OGZPY ADRs compared to BV/ADR exeeds my fraction of the BV of aquired/paid reserves [bV of Production Licenses/ADR].

Averaging down in OAO Gazprom ADR [OGZPY] for the last 5 weeks.

This was one of the business headlines here in Denmark yesterday. From what I have read locally, I did not understand that the parent was filing for bankruptcy also: One among many : http://borsen.dk/nyheder/virksomheder/artikel/1/258507/better_place_gaar_konkurs.html [Hint: In Danish, please use i.e. Google translate and copy & paste if you are not familiar with Scandinavian languages].

As per this definition, there has been a lot of innovation within the last 30 years. Many good examples are already posted above.

Palantir, What's your basis for your statement?

Birdman, Thank you for guidance for reading on Lukoil. It's very much appreciated.

Personally I spend quite some time these days trying to understand the market valuation of certain Russian stocks when time permits, right now with focus on OAO Gazprom. Lukoil and Rosneft will be the next ones, however I'm not sure in which order. I will decide that later based on some overall analysis. My interest in OAO Gazprom is based on gas reserves owned by the company, its moat nationally [Russian monoly as per Russian State decision/regulation] and a so far not for myself documented overall perception that the company is "embracing" Europe with regard to gas supplies. Based on latest financial statements [iFRS] I have calculated current P/E to 5.04 for OAO Gazprom based on currency rates [rates RRU/EUR] about two weeks ago. The stock has been tanking since April 2011, and so far I don't understand why. My interest in the above mentioned three companies is not based on that they are Russian, but on their share metrics vs business performance, their state of affairs and prospects vs market in general. From reading the board I have understood, that Packer is also interested in Gazprom and Lukoil. Perhaps he will chim in.