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A rare comment on the timing and cost basis of a new stock market investment. Warren didn't want people to think he was chatting with Bill Gates and front-ran the deal announcement. https://www.wsj.com/articles/berkshire-hathaway-bought-bulk-of-stake-in-activision-blizzard-in-october-11644952482?mod=hp_lista_pos1 Berkshire bought the ATVI shares at $66.53 avg cost in October, before the lows. Ted or Todd position, as expected from the size and nature of the business. edit: this is mis-reporting by the wall street journal on cost basis. They simply used the end of year price for ATVI as the cost basis without getting confirmation from Berkshire The WSJ corrected their article to reflect the true cost basis on the ATVI shares that their source at Berkshire provided - "Berkshire bought the shares at an average price of roughly $77 a share, the person said"

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/feb1422.pdf Tom Murphy resigns from BRK board at 96

sure it is possible in the US - the SMA client must be a qualified purchaser or a qualified client (kind of like an accredited investor but a different standard).

It would be in a 6-K for a company like this. Look at the balance sheet here, balance sheet at the end: https://app.quotemedia.com/data/downloadFiling?webmasterId=101533&ref=116238675&type=HTML&symbol=TME&companyName=Tencent+Music+Entertainment+Group+American+Depositary+Shares+each+representing+two+Class+A&formType=6-K&dateFiled=2021-11-08&CK=1744676

Some Berkshire nerds might be interested, this is obviously not material news but its interesting to some: One of Berkshire's representatives on the Kraft Heinz board of directors is resigning (curiously, this Berkshire nominee was Alexandre Van Damme from Interbrew who is usually more connected with the 3G guys/companies than Berkshire). You can tell Greg Abel was put in charge of nominating a replacement director - he chose Alicia Knapp, CEO of BHE Renewables. Greg Abel is also on the KHC board of directors. Tracey Britt Cool used to be a Berkshire nominee on the KHC board before she left Berkshire to strike off on her own. (the CEO of MedPro Group is also a Berkshire nominee to the board) https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1637459/000163745922000012/khc-20220201.htm

Dead - Texas politicians rejected it. It did not move forward at all.

Bloomberg canada published an update on Berkshire's investment in Japanese trading houses - no pay wall for me at least: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/buffett-strikes-gold-as-japan-trading-houses-see-record-profits-1.1717712

Does anybody know Baupost's returns for the past 20 years or so?

Can anyone actually post Baupost's performance over any time frame? I feel like there are a lot of assumptions being made. What are the returns?

Your theory probably explains the huge volume right before year end and big sell-off right after year end.

It's not too late LOL

Berkshire has permission to go up to 25% of AXP through repurchases (if I remember correctly - they have upped it several times). Looks like AXP had 761 million shares left at the end of the year. They retired 17m shares in Q4. Berkshire's 151,610,700 shares put them at 19.9% ownership at that time, so BRK could plausibly be passing 20% ownership currently. When AXP files their 10Q it would have a more precise recent figure.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/business/berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting.html BRK annual meeting in person this year

New renewable project pitched by BHE: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220119005998/en/MidAmerican-Energy-Proposes-3.9-Billion-“Wind-PRIME”-Renewable-Energy-Project https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-19/buffett-s-berkshire-proposes-3-9-billion-wind-solar-project Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is proposing to spend $3.9 billion to bring more wind and solar generation to Iowa in a project that could be among the renewable industry’s biggest. The “Wind Prime” renewable-energy project would bring 2,042 megawatts of wind generation and 50 megawatts of solar power, Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy Co. said Wednesday in a statement. The firm is also planning to fund studies about technologies that could help with carbon capture, energy storage and smaller nuclear reactors. The project would bolster Iowa’s already significant wind market. In 2019, the state generated 41% of its total energy needs from wind, up from just 5.1% in 2006, according to the Iowa Utilities Board. Governor Kim Reynolds called the Wind Prime project a “commitment and investment on a whole new level.” Berkshire, overseen by Buffett as chief executive officer, has been building MidAmerican’s renewable efforts in recent years. MidAmerican estimates that it delivered 88% renewable energy to Iowa customers on an annual basis in 2021. Buffett has said that he expected the utility could achieve “wind self-sufficiency” in Iowa. MidAmerican said Wednesday that the Wind Prime project will help the utility provide renewable energy equal to its Iowa customers’ annual usage. “As MidAmerican continues to progress toward delivering 100% renewable energy to our customers, we are also preparing to meet an important milestone of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions,” Kelcey Brown, president and CEO of MidAmerican, said in the statement. Berkshire expects the project to create 1,100 jobs during construction, and another 125 for ongoing efforts. It can generate an average of $24 million a year in local property-tax payments on the turbines and solar equipment, plus more than $21 million in annual landowner-easement payments. Berkshire expects construction to be completed in late 2024 if the project is approved.

Great trade, I owe you a beer!

The Wall Street Journal was a little late with the obit, but ran an article today - https://www.wsj.com/articles/louis-a-simpson-once-seen-as-warren-buffetts-successor-dies-at-age-85-11642518001

Oceanfront property you want to self-insure would be the main one I can think of. I know a few people in hurricane areas on the Atlantic that have self insured for decades. Can't do that with a mortgage.

Not that I remember, but he owns a sweet shopping cart company https://www.unarco.com ..but I bet if the Rausing family called to offer Tetra Laval he would take the call real quick

If only we could find an insurance company with tons of long duration float but almost zero - say less than 2% of assets - existing bond holdings. A company like that would surely be more valuable if rates rise.

Coca-Cola and Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire priced the latest batch of Yen bonds - (Berkshire has a higher credit rating than the government of Japan) Quote from Bloomberg: (Jan 14): Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold 128.5 billion yen ($1.13 billion) in bonds, taking advantage of Japan’s ultra-low borrowing costs. The U.S. company priced a multi-part debt offering on Friday, marking its fourth bond deal in the Japanese currency in as many years. With a coupon of 0.203%, the U.S. company priced its 5-year debt at a rate attractive to Japanese buyers given government bonds of that tenor offer negative yields and local companies can sell notes of a similar maturity at less than half that cost. While bond yields in Japan have also climbed at the start of the year amid global consumer price pressures, the moves have been small compared with dollar markets due to the Bank of Japan’s negative-interest rate policy. Berkshire Hathaway priced one of the biggest yen bond offerings ever by an overseas firm in 2019, and announced the following year that it had built up stakes of about 5% in Japan’s biggest trading companies. The company’s 2022 yen issuance was smaller than its 160 billion yen transaction in April 2021. update: here are the details, 5 year - 30 year bonds: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000119312522009641/d477637dfwp.htm

That's Minneapolis? Bonkers. That would never fly down here.

Yeah I'm not sure I would want a heat pump in a northern climate, but the newer heat pumps are way better than they used to be. Up north you would want back up electric heat strips in the unit, which would be an expensive way to heat a house if they got used very often. Down here in Louisiana these inverter (variable) systems are way better than a basic (usually oversized) a/c system because they don't short cycle, they run more continuously dehumidifying the air, which is more important to comfort in New Orleans than the actual temperature of the room. They also barely make a sound. And I can run the whole house plus the central a/c system during a power outage off my champion 100416 generator using natural gas. Couldn't do that with the old-school 4-ton compressor it replaced. I'm not a fan of mini-splits in most applications either, but they are also extremely quiet and energy efficient. Inverter technology (variable cooling power / speed) is definitely the future of Air conditioning. But a lennox variable system costs a fortune and most old-timers in the business don't get trained up on the new technology. At least down here. edit: forgot to mention, in a spray foamed attic these heat pump air handlers eliminate two roof penetrations each, since you need fresh combustion air plus exhaust for each nat. gas furnace in a foamed attic. another plus. you do need 240v line to the air handler though.

With HVAC prices in my area rising (and the cost of R22 freon basically becoming cost prohibitive to keep old systems), I have been using these heat pumps from Mr. Cool (usually with a better discount than is offered at the moment.) They come with pre-charged line sets so it is up to you if you want to use a professional to put them in (not all pros will work with you on a self purchased system, I have a younger guy who is trying to get established - he'll work on anything). The only drawback I have found so far is that they don't have a central air handler unit that works for down-flow vertical installations yet - but one is supposed to be coming after some delay. These systems work great even without an electric heating coil (at least in the south). DC inverter, like a mini-split, so they scale up and down smoothly - a much better system than a typical all-or-nothing basic central air conditioner. And extremely efficient. https://hvacdirect.com/mrcool-universal-36-000-btu-heat-pump-mdu18036.html

Thanks for sharing those - I especially like the value-line-like presentation of the roic.ai site. edit: certainly screams out the reasons Warren and Charlie are so in love with Apple