John Hjorth

Thank you for the last two posts of yours, globalfinancepartners, - they are very good, I have just read the major parts of the merger docs this morning. I'm just so impressed, that it gave me goose bumps. Simply put, to me, it's a slam dunk. This deal solves the whole situation with EFH Corp. being in bankruptcy since April 2014 and at the same time moving Oncor into safe harbour, backed by the regulatory bodies. EFH Corp.'s owners have now had more than 3 years to solve the matter - which mean: They can't. There is a cat flap for EFH Corp. to get out of the deal in the merger docs [termination fee of USD 270 M]. So where does a company under bankruptcy proceedings find a saving angel with access to at least USD 9.27 B that at the same time can get consent from the regulatory bodies, who have already expressed an positive opinion to Berkshire? - To me that is highly unlikely. Edit: With regard to the EFH bonds owned by Berkshire: 2011 shareholder letter, p.4 : The bonds were bought for about USD 2 B "a few years back", relative to February 2012, written down by USD 1 B in 2010 and further written down by USD 390 M in 2011.

Um, BRK invested in the TXU LBO bonds and lost $900mm. And Buffett didn't include the opportunity cost of deploying that $2B into safer investment or even a risky investment that didn't blow up. He counts the dividends received against the price paid. Hmm. they will recover the 900m and opportunity cost. And some. Not written off yet. This is one way to recover losses. Didn't Mr. Buffett dump the bonds at a loss, thereby calling it a day with this mistake? [sorry, I'm getting lazy here - I'm actually sitting under the parasol with the Lady of the House right now with a glass of wine rosé, and it's Friday evening here right now.]

Thank you, globalfinancepartners, I have now adjusted the calculations in my post earlier today accordingly.

Are there any NOL's or similar offsets in play here? I don't see any information about NOLs in the notes or balance sheet, longinvestor. There is USD 2.788 B "utility float" [deferred taxes] in the balance sheet, not bad at all. The tax situation for Oncor is hairy, based on what mess Oncor is part of right now, ref. the content of note 12. Berkshire has really been fishing in white waters here.

Attached are the 2016 Oncor financials. Just a few observations after a first glance: Cash flow from operations 2016: USD 1.429 B [for the whole Oncor]. Goodwill in balance sheet: USD 4.064 B [for the whole Oncor]. Membership interest [equity]: USD 7.710 B [for the whole Oncor]. Cash outlay, ref. news release: USD 9.000 B [for 80 per cent of Oncor]. Implying goodwill for BHE before purchase accounting adjustments under past equity consolidation method : [uSD 4.064 B + USD 9.000 B - [0.8 x USD 7.710 B]] = USD 6.896 B. [All based on if the transaction took place 1st January 2017.] - - - o 0 o - - - Please also note the debt [notes] in note 7 at USD 5.510 B. Just the refinancing of this debt going forward for Oncor under Berkshire & BHE umbrella will generate several millions in interest savings every year, the clip of the refinancing steps naturally depending on the terms for early redemption of the existing notes. Edit: To me, this already looks better than a pile of T-bills worth USD 9 B for Berkshire. Oncor_Financials_2016.PDF

Valuehalla, Aren't you confusing EBITA with EBITDA in your last post? I see a net income 2017Q1 of USD 73 M on page 5.

News release of today from BHE, that the deal has closed, subject to the usual approvals. [Also posted in the general news topic by globalfinancepartners.]

Personally, I agree with Greg here, and to be totally honest, very. Jeff did not do anything wrong by opening this poll. Please be nice to newcomers on this board, or this board might perhaps die no later than when you die! [<-Something to think about?]

News realase about the BAC preferred swap to BAC common from Berkshire, dated 30th June 2017.

The world's best beds! - Right in front of you - Listed on NYSE. They have a sub here on the Danish island called Funen, where I live. It's a totally outstanding sub - generating three figures DKK M profits pretax every year! It's on the top list every year of the best performing Danish companies. - - - o 0 o - - - As with everything else - also stocks - you have have to pay up for quality - here, for a bed, dearly!

Great, thank you for finding the facts and sharing them with us here, Valuehalla.

<j/k>I have actually written a letter to Mr. Buffet recently, that I think he should consider to buy the Vatican State outright. After a few days, Mr. Buffet actually gave me a call about the idea. The telephone conversation was about 5 minutes, after which Mr. Buffett passed on the idea, definitely, so I gave up, eventually. He started up with the following major concerns: 1. What about that flamboyant garden backside the primary Vatican building? - I think his concerns actually was the wages to all those gardeners working everyday to keep it in top & mint shape. 2. Same with the very old building complex, with regard to maintenance. After that, I just said to him, that if he was in doubt, he could do it with 3G, to reduce BRK invested capital, and Rome would end up with a new skyline from the new skycrapers in Rome. After that, he said: "Just one moment - I'll have to lay down the phone on the desk to go talk with Marc... - I'll pick it up again after that - please stay on the line." After a couple of minutes he came back to me on the phone: "Mr. Marc Hamburg almost suffered a personal breakdown, screaming to me : "Are you asking me to add a further line in the BRK income statement - in a separate line all over the place: "Income from taxing the world of people with a religious conviction being catholic?" I have thought shortly about that point - however I know Mr. Mamburg's work get harder every time I buy something. He is always screeming when I buy someting. He is getting paid for that. Dearly, I should note. His salary here at BRK is material bigger than mine, actually. He is just getting geriatric - no sweat. However, my major point here for turning the idea down - as I do now to you - is, that we do no not appoint sub CEOs based on votes in some kind of democracy based on subordinates voting. It's my job. -And we don't use white and black smoke either. -Thank you for getting in contact with me." [After which Mr. Buffett hung up] <end j/k>

It's religion, clutch! [ ; -) ] The ten commandmends : Exodus 20:1-17: By investing in both BRK and one or more of the FANGs, you are a hethen right now, ref. the above quote - because you have more than one God. Please still note my [fully intended] smiley at the top of this post. I'm not trying to patronize you here. [please put smiley here again]. What is important to note here is, that that every God of ours each of us here on CoBF hold on to - each of them! - has the same God [in the meaning: God of Gods]. That God is called: Time! So, it's about personal consistency - to try to get the right connection between your gut feeling and what's going on in your brain. The brain simply has to supress your gut feeling to get it right sometimes. Other times your parts of your gut feeling has to rule, to keep your out of trouble. It is just a so incredible hard and fascinating experience, and exactly that is what drags persons into it, because of the challenge embedded in it. No matter how you do end up finally - broke after a blow up, or rich, or somewhere between - to all degrees - you will always have the privilege of having tried to test the relation between your gut and and your brain. Entering the scene with money, leaving with money [hopefully a lot more] - or not, certainly matter [at least to me]. What the experience of successes and and failures has done to you, nobody can ever take away from you, on a personal level.

longinvestor, I can't even find it using advanced search here on the board, - I'm soo dumb navigating this board - but I actually asked this question here on CoBF some time ago and a helpful fellow CoBF member answered me [i have forgotten who] - with specific reference to the BRK financials, that the warrants in the BRK book are booked at MtM of the underlying common shares minus the 5 B as payment for doing the swap. So the accounting effect of doing the swap as such is basically zero on earnings and book value, but USD 5 B cash will get reallocated from cash to investments, at the time when the swap is done. Naturally the dividends going forward will change from the point in time where the swap happen.

Thanks, longinvestor, Absolutely worth to think about - as your posts always are here on CoBF. Yes, it's not near pocket money, what BRK has poured into WFC and BAC now, over time.

Here we go https://finance.yahoo.com/m/0ff6af95-a46f-3db2-8b04-3a45d1a4b074/%5B%24%24%5D-berkshire-hathaway-to.html Who's next? We have what you need! All you need to do is get in trouble. Well, somehow, I'll have to raise the hand. Are you worried about BRK pouring yet another USD 5 B into major US banks? - Or have I plain simply misunderstood your last post in some way? Or are your thoughts about two US major banks in a terrible adverse scenario, with BRK as an anchor investor, the two banks [WFC and BAC] draining BRK for cash?

Hi Al, While doing my last post here on CoBF about the book, it hadn't even streched my mind, that this book is actually the perfect diversion under such cumbersome travel activity. But it is! -Please enjoy the stay in France, your family, and life in general!

This book is just so entertaining. Last night I just read the foreword and introduction. It's so hilarious, and at the same time so true, if you think about it. There will never be any GS or MS for me to invest in. [i can't in any way control, what BRK invest in - at conglomerate investing you just have to take it all]. Every fellow CoBF member should try to read this book, in my opinion, already based on what I have read so far. Just try to get it to read at a library ..., you will most likely end up with a strong propensity to own it. I'm already "sold", based on the nible part I have read so far.

Joel, please say hi to Jeffrey from me, and tell him that he is now officially an exporter to Denmark. If he had a hardcover, I would go with that, I had to settle with the paperback. This is exactly the kind of book, that I would like to read in the near future. I really look forward to the read.

Valuehalla, Here we don't share interest, because I have started adding again, in drips, most likely for 3 - 4 years, perhaps 5, if we - all of us - until then - do not hit a recession.

Thanks for sharing, Ballinvarosig Investors, Now it makes quite more sense to me after reading the article. STO must have had a project pipeline with good prospects that it could not lift because of lack of capital, or it could speed up on execution on the project pipeline. Buy and build.

I haven't looked at the FANGs today, Valuehalla, but I see BRK relatively stable at closing compared to yesterdays closing measured in USD, while at the same today down relatively much on the monitor measured in DKK. DKK/EUR relative rate stable. USD/EUR down about 1.23% for the day. I don't know why, I'm not a macro guy. I call it the "pleasure" [sarcasm intended] of owning BRK and having a functional currency related to a country on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. It always make me think about all those T-bills and cash in BRK basically pulling only a pittance. The best I can do now with free cash is 0.85% basically risk free without making it a time deposit at an account in Bank Norwegian, up in Oslo - nominated in DKK - but an overseas account - with extra tax reporting hassle. Oh well.

It's even more striking that of the taxable income of USD 592, USD 364 was income from the paper routes, and he had interest income and dividends of USD 228.50, meaning 38.6 per cent of his taxable income was income on capital. I have read somewhere recently, that he was actually running the paper routes as a real business, with some of the boys in the nabourhood delivering the papers on the major part of the routes, while taking care of the rest of the routes him self. I think it's in Snowball. The text on the tax return at least partly supports it: "Washington Post paper routes as an independent merchant". So I see it as he was selfemployed in paper routes and at the same time having an investment arm, where he was pouring the cash generated by the paper routes into stocks in the investment arm to get the ball rolling. I'm puzzled by the fact that the tax return is filled by the use a typewriter. Perhaps it was his fathers.

The real question here is, what is Mr. Buffett actually doing here? I simply don't get it. Any kind of sharing thoughts with my fellow board members about this investment in this topic would be much appreciated - thank you in advance.

Added a bit today to BRK.B. Added to C today, so it's now a 3 per cent position.