gfp

You can read the document I attached in the post above yours. It is just an approval for going up to 50% ownership of OXY through secondary market transactions (open market purchases). It keeps him from being capped at 25%, which is what he had prior FERC approval for. It does not mean Warren is suddenly going to bid for a bunch of OXY stock or pay much more than $60 / share but you never know. It specifically is not an approval to purchase the entire company, although I'm sure they could get approval for something like that if given enough time. I don't think Warren is in any hurry to exercise OXY warrants unless Occidental was going to pay some crazy high dividend on their common shares. (I took advantage of this opportunity to sell most of my OXY warrants (the 22 strike 2027s) over $48/warrant.)

I don't have the original FERC document but there is this https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-regulator-says-berkshire-hathaway-can-buy-up-50-occidental-stock-2022-08-19/ edit - this is the file (attached) 20220819-3006.PDF

This is interesting because Berkshire already had received FERC approval to go up to 25% ownership in OXY (they are a hair above 20% currently unless there is a filing tonight). In case folks are wondering why FERC would even be involved, Occidental owns a company called Occidental Power Marketing LP that provides power to the Texas market and since Berkshire owns utilities it had to get various clearances from FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) edit: also OXY owns a power plant and an intrastate pipeline: " Occidental Chemical Corporation (OxyChem), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental, owns and operates the 894 megawatt (MW) Taft cogeneration QF (Taft Facility) located in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) market. OxyChem has executed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Entergy Louisiana, LLC (Entergy Louisiana) for the sale of capacity and associated energy from the Taft Facility for a term expiring May 31, 2028, and the remaining capacity of the Taft Facility serves host load at the company’s adjacent chemical complex with any excess available for sale at wholesale. OxyChem has been granted market-based rate authorization. Oxy Salt Creek Pipeline LLC, an affiliate of Occidental, owns approximately 38.6 miles of intrastate natural gas transportation pipeline located in Kent and Scurry counties, Texas."

tickers alone don't work for search, so I always type something like "CLF Cliffs" or "ATCO Atlas" and that works for me. Search has always been kind of bad on this forum.

Since the site makeover I have just used this link and looked at the most recent posts chronologically (similar to your link but not just unread) https://thecobf.com/forum/discover/

The second 13F is called New England Asset Management and you only count the securities with the "01, 02" designation in Column 7. But yes, it is part of General Re and it is disclosed in the main Berkshire 13F as containing additional securities owned. The rest of the NEAM 13F (those that don't have "01, 02" next to them) are not Berkshire corporate holdings. https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1004244 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1004244/000108514622003133/xslForm13F_X01/infotable.xml That's how you get to the correct ownership of stocks like Apple, Chevron, BAC, HPQ, etc etc

As usual, every major media outlet misses half the Chevron share adds and 100% of the additional HPQ purchases that Berkshire just reported because they happened inside General Re. Even though the HPQ purchases were publicly disclosed in April and they all wrote articles about it.

If you include multifamily residential real estate in your definition of 'living off your investments' then yes, I have been doing that for over 20 years. My last job with an actual paycheck was in the year 2000. I don't run investment portfolios with much, or any, idle cash but you certainly want to have cash in your actual bank accounts. I like to keep a year's worth of expenses in the checking account. It is very difficult to behave as you should in a weak stock market if you have nothing else to live off of and no income coming in. Having cash in the bank and rents arriving promptly each first of the month is very helpful in bear markets. Like Gregmal mentioned, real estate investments also complement exchange traded investments because they are very easy to access liquidity from. We keep undrawn lines of credit on valuable under leveraged properties and we pay to renew them over and over even though we haven't drawn anything. This ensures you can seize time sensitive all-cash opportunities and also deal with any occasional disasters that come up. On paper it looks like we are wasting the money we pay to banks to keep these lines open, but having the liquidity is very valuable.

Did you or anyone else here end up attending the Boston Omaha annual meeting? Would love to hear anything you learned at the meeting.

You don't have to report 5% in a hurry like you do with 10%. Maybe once a year or something like that.

Warren paid $138.37 / share for 3.879m shares of AAPL on 5/20/2022, for a total cost of $536,724,551 So the quarter-end Apple position is something like 915,226,526 shares ($158.3 Billion at today's close)

Berkshire's 13F is out showing unsurprising moves that we mostly already knew about. Added a bit to AAPL, CVX, ALLY, OXY, etc.. Finished selling off VZ, sold half the STOR. Also, New England Asset Management 13F isn't out yet but it looks like they added $583.5 million worth of HPQ at $35.71/share over at General Re on 4/6/2022 so that should show up over at NEAM. (These were disclosed on this Form 4 which caused HPQ shares to jump the next day: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001067983/000089924322014160/xslF345X03/doc4.xml) The ATVI stake increased a little bit - I don't think he wants to go over 10% here for the short swing profit rule or just the Form 4 requirements. Under the surface he is trading this position a bit. At National Indemnity, he bought 8.6m ATVI shares at 77.69/sh on 4/29 and sold 6.99m ATVI shares at 78.57/sh on 5/6. Also at National Indemnity he added $97m of BASF.

no joke: https://www.dataroma.com/m/m_activity.php?m=SAM&typ=a

Keeping it classy with the sole holding of a private prison / mental health facility landlord.. Wan't it Burry that coined the "ick" investing style back on the message board days?

I believe it is discussed on page 40, " Other earnings/loss consist primarily of Berkshire parent company investment income and corporate expenses, other intercompany interest income where the interest expense is included in earnings of the operating businesses and unallocated income taxes." So the answer to your question would be that while almost all of the investments are held inside insurance companies (or BYD in the Energy company), Berkshire parent company owns some investments and those investments generate income.

One thing I noticed in this report is that towards the bottom of page 7 they mention that a new accounting pronouncement that will go into effect at the beginning of 2023 is currently projected to reduce shareholders' equity by $6-7 Billion (ultimate amount to be based on interest rates at that time). ASU 2018-12 They mentioned it last quarter but this quarter they included an estimated ballpark figure if rates stay about the same. Quote: We will adopt ASU 2018-12 as of January 1, 2023 using the modified retrospective method, whereby revised cash flow and discount rate assumptions as of January 1, 2021 (the transition date) are applied to contracts then in-force, with liabilities then remeasured as provided under the standard. The cumulative effects from discount rate assumption changes as of the transition date will be recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income and the cumulative effect from cash flow assumption changes will be recorded in retained earnings. While we have not finalized our assessment of the impact of the adoption as of the transition date, we currently believe that the changes in discount rate assumptions will have a greater effect on our recorded liabilities than changes in cash flow assumptions. We currently estimate that as of January 1, 2021, the adoption of ASU 2018-12 will reduce our consolidated shareholders’ equity between $6 billion and $7 billion from the amount previously reported, primarily due to the low interest rate environment at that time. However, the ultimate impact of adopting ASU 2018-12 will be based on the discount rate and cash flow assumptions determined as of the January 1, 2023 adoption date. We, therefore, continue to evaluate the effect this standard will have on our Consolidated Financial Statements.

June: 2397 at 425,870.54 = $1.02 billion plus 25,462 at 276.75 = $7 MILLION dollars worth (there is also a press release that spells it out "approx. $1.0 billion was used to repurchase BRK shares during the quarter")

I think your numbers are wrong. A little over a billion dollars worth during June and then another half billion or slightly less spent after quarter end through July 26th.

I do think it was a taxable cash deal with Greg Abel. A long term capital gain. I'm sure a chunk is going towards philanthropy as well. There is a certain badge of honor for Berkshire executives to purchase their Berkshire shares with their own hard-earned after tax money. Just like Ajit did and just like Warren did. It will be nice to see Greg buy some shares in the open market when he is allowed to.

I noticed that too. Sort of surprised they did a taxable cash deal when he had the option to do a tax free swap into Berkshire shares but way to go Greg! New hockey rinks for everyone!

It could be worse - "The Consortium's proposal further provides that the proposed transaction will be subject to a non-waivable condition requiring approval by holders of a majority of Atlas common shares not owned or controlled by the Consortium, senior management or their respective affiliates."

Since the warrants can't really be transferred to anyone else to capture the time and volatility premium before they are exercised, they really only end up being worth their in-the-money intrinsic value (currently a little over $500 million). Warren gets the optionality, which has value, but can't receive payment for that value. I'm sure the accountants will still value them under Black Scholes and a set of assumptions about time-to-expiry and mark them accordingly - but that value will never show up as money in the bank.

That business was part of Fox & Roach, a realtor that HomeServices acquired. Not even sure if HomeServices of America owned Fox & Roach when the alleged redlining took place. (edit: HomeServices bought the company in 2013, the investigation covered the period 2015-2019)

That's correct - Berkshire has a bunch of specific agreements in writing with both AXP and the Federal Reserve that would almost certainly exempt them from required equity method accounting. This letter from 2019 references the many agreements that are in place and their periodic amendments, for example: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/4962/000000496919000036/exhibit_101.htm

Since this is largely Canadian forum, I am happy to report that I have just returned home from my first trip to Canada. A wonderful week in Victoria and Lake Cowichan. We had a great time and I can't wait to return. Victoria was certainly a nice change of pace from New Orleans. I guess Vancouver Island is a rain forest. It certainly looked the part.