gfp

technically I suppose Berkshire sold another company today (or Marmon did, more specifically) - Owl Wire & Cable with applied underwriters we've got a certified selling spree... https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/international-wire-group-acquires-owl-wire-and-cable-2019-12-06?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

Weird that they left Kiewit off that list

beyond repurchases, the only real solution is to make a very large acquisition. Berkshire can afford to make an all-cash acquisition much larger than most media outlets speculate. With access to the stock portfolio and extremely attractive bond rates, Berkshire can afford to buy a very large company. ExxonMobil would not be too large for Berkshire to acquire for cash at this point. People always speculate that appreciated securities could be spun out tax efficiently, but I do not see that happening. Assets inside the insurance subsidiaries will likely stay inside the insurance subsidiaries. Repurchases and acquisitions are the only real solution (apart from additional purchases of marketable securities and OXY-type deals).

A look behind the scenes- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/29/warren-buffetts-latest-attempt-to-put-his-cash-to-work-is-thwarted.html

You can buy hedge funds, leveraged or otherwise, through a self directed IRA. You can also buy real estate and other alternative investments including certain types of precious metals investments through the self directed IRA. The self directed IRA can even take on loans to buy investment real estate as long as the debt in non-recourse beyond the property itself and the IRA balance. You can get creative through the allowed use of private loans within a self directed IRA - meaning that you can lend IRA money privately - but you cannot invest or lend in anything that directly benefits the IRA holder, as in a back door way to spend IRA money for personal consumption/enjoyment. You can, however, take joy in your investment real estate and you are permitted to feel joyful towards your portfolio of private lending..

Bolt on acquisition at Johns Manville - deal to purchase the Insulation systems business of Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Not huge, only 100 employees - https://business.financialpost.com/pmn/press-releases-pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/johns-manville-announces-acquisition-of-itw-insulation-systems

Here is the recent 10-Q https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/71180/000108131619000017/bhe93019form10-q.htm BHE can and does move cash between subsidiaries. The pay no dividends thing is mostly true but BHE actually does do a few hundred million dollars worth of share repurchases from Walter Scott's family each year. Instead of Berkshire Hathaway buying the Scott shares, they have chosen to do it by BHE repurchasing the Scott shares - equivalent to a dividend. I had also wondered how the minority shareholders (Scott family & Greg Abel) were coming up with their share of tax payments but I see that there actually are cash distributions to minority interests occasionally - just not to Berkshire. And of course BHE operates in a tax efficient manner and files a consolidated tax return with Berkshire Hathaway. The distributions and share repurchases are small in comparison to the net capital contributions from Berkshire Hathaway that have funded some of the larger deals. Overall, the balance is a lot more capital in than capital out. They seem to really cultivate their positive reputation with the various regulators. They are not trying to squeeze the last dollar out of any of their customers in the pursuit of a longer term successful platform. As for international, I am sure BHE would be interested in international energy assets they could understand the long term regulatory situation & economics of. Sokol was much more international when it was just called Cal Energy and he did a project in the Philippines that I think I remember kind of burned him in the end. Obviously they own the UK transmission assets and did a decent sized deal for AltaLink in Canada. They will continue to invest as much as they can figure out in Canada for sure. The stake in BYD is also in there. I wouldn't be surprised to see big deals in countries like Brazil, Australia, something in Europe. Sort of depends on what becomes available. I do think they would buy more pipelines if they came on the market for attractive prices. Warren hasn't been a fan of the MLP accounting / valuations and has mostly skipped those. You could see his giggles when someone asked him about Kinder Morgan popping up in the BRK portfolio some time ago and he said it wasn't him and he was surprised to see it too. It left the portfolio shortly after

Certainly seems they have continued to sell down the WFC stake to stay below 10%.

Acquisition at Marmon (another from the Pritzker family) https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/marmon-acquires-majority-interest-in-colson-medical-companies-2019-11-01?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

thanks Dynamic. Yes, earnings release is this Saturday morning. I'll be in the country for the weekend at an old 1820's plantation with no printer. Hoping to sneak a laptop in... Curious to see if he's still selling down Wells, adding to JPM or any other new surprises. That apple position sure perked up. 255 million shares is no joke - sooner or later you're talkin' real money

Could be from the date of the WFC 10-Q being filed, which would be even later since WFC hasn't actually filed the 10-Q with the SEC yet. The big banks tend to have quite a delay between their 'earnings release' and the filing of the actual 10-Q. Berkshire themselves always puts them out simultaneously, which like so many of their practices probably has at its root a pet peeve of Mr. Buffett. Another pet peeve of Mr. Buffett is how deep into a filing you have to go to find actual financial statements like a balance sheet. Sometimes its hundreds of pages in. Berkshire always puts them up front. Balance sheet on page 2...

Man wabuffo, remember those days?! The old chucks angles board was so active during that time. Old timers debating going on margin, how low will she go, etc.. Here are a couple of my posts from that week. Charlie filed his SEC filing on the transfer to his kids a couple days after I was doing it for friends and clients. We were talking about Warren doing it for his sisters with his Mother's shares the same way.. Seems like forever ago. Just celebrated my 10 year wedding anniversary. Master at work! It is like watching Roger Federer play tennis.

sorry to post this in your thread, but it relates to what we were just talking about - https://www.americanbanker.com/articles/warren-buffett-seeks-fed-leeway-to-boost-stake-in-bank-of-america-past-10 Also - an update for your BAC position size now that Applied Underwriters is sold https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000120919119053219/xslF345X03/doc4.xml

Looks like Berkshire went over 10% on Wells as of this morning's updated WFC share count. I'm seeing period end (9/30/19) Wells share count at 4.2691 Billion shares and Berkshire with 432.383 million shares. So a few days after Wells files their 10Q we will see if Berkshire was granted or is in the process of being granted permission to let the stake drift above 10% due to repurchase activity. Seemed to be allowed for BAC so I would expect the same for Wells.

Yes, Berkshire would have to file with the SEC if they sold any BAC shares. They haven't. I don't think they will be selling any WFC shares going forward either. I believe what is happening is that they are in discussions with the Fed and will ultimately not be limited to the 10% level going forward as long as they are careful not to exert what looks like other types of influence over a bank. No discussions with the board, arms length commercial relationships, etc.. They have to be seen as totally passive shareholders

In the absence of any real material Berkshire related news in ages, we can at least read about this interesting real estate development in Omaha that Applied Underwriters is leading - https://www.omaha.com/money/applied-underwriters-celebrates-work-on-heartwood-preserve-development-touts-natural/article_d4ef8492-37c8-595f-aa64-151f3d20673a.html Here's hoping for "Berkshire Hathaway acquires ExxonMobil" or similar headline sometime soon..

Its a great family business, not sure why the family would want to sell anytime soon but you never know. I think they are at least to 580 locations now. My wife's family lives in Virginia or I wouldn't even be aware of them. (pilot flying J is over 750 locations now - time marches on)

Duracell looks set to do a small deal for Everready assets (India market only) - https://www.cnbctv18.com/market/eveready-shares-hit-5-lower-circuit-after-reports-of-duracells-plans-to-buy-company-assets-4316751.htm

Warren is not the type to borrow in advance of a hoped-for acquisition in a particular country. If he wants to borrow to fund a portion of any future deal in any country, there is plenty of time between signing and closing a deal to do so. He has commented on several occasions that he evaluates acquisitions on an un-levered basis, since any debt he would employ to juice the potential returns on a prospective deal is really just using the general leverage available to Berkshire and not logical to mentally assign to a particular acquisition. Despite this, he did chose to borrow a portion of the BNSF cash consideration. When looking for an explanation for the Euro, UK and Japanese debt offerings I really do think you only need to look at the interest rates on those bonds and what he perceives as a low risk of large adverse currency losses over the life of the notes. Unless he wants to generally inch up Berkshire's general leverage (which he very well may wish to do - or just keep it more or less constant over time with retained earnings factored in), he may elect to have some of the USD notes mature without being rolled over. None of it is really material to Berkshire at these numbers and I have long said that a big part of his motivation to dabble in these offerings is his desire to raise Berkshire's profile in the business communities in these countries he would be thrilled to be offered more wholly owned businesses in. That and his life-long fascination with negative cost leverage (or capital with a reasonable expectation of near-zero cost). Did he have to offer the SQUARZ? No, it was Warren messing around. Did he have to sell billions in premium of index puts and deal with the mark to market fluctuations? No, it was Warren dabbling and proving a point (that he looks to have proven with a combined ratio of near zero on the billions in premiums). Apple, Proctor & Gamble and others borrowed in Yen recently and nobody speculates that they are imminently announcing a deal for a Japanese acquisition. Investment Bankers are out there actively pitching this idea and the cost of borrowing is the primary attraction. BRK just put out 5 year paper at 17 basis points before the tax deduction. 10 year paper at 44 basis points. Interesting times

Yes - ¥108,500,000,000 0.170% Senior Notes due 2024 ¥61,000,000,000 0.270% Senior Notes due 2026 ¥146,500,000,000 0.440% Senior Notes due 2029 ¥19,000,000,000 0.787% Senior Notes due 2034 ¥59,000,000,000 0.965% Senior Notes due 2039 ¥36,000,000,000 1.108% Senior Notes due 2049 Am I reading that right; they'll pay less than 1% on average annually for those notes?

Berkshire Yen notes offering (~$4 Billion USD) https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000119312519239290/d779071dfwp.htm https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Berkshire-taps-Japan-s-hunger-for-yields-with-4bn-bond-debut

Applied Underwriters sale information - https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/53946178

Happy 89th Birthday to Warren

That was great - right on cue. I would cover now

Thanks Dynamic. Good job with the formatting!