Charlie

twacowfca, what do you think Berkshire is worth at the moment? I have recently sold most of my other holdings and bought Berkshire Hathaway. At P/B 1,2 and Berkshire coming out of recession the stock is too cheap to ignore. I´m also looking at Munich Re, because in a recent interview Buffett said he is buying a lot of shares of one stock.

Munich Re will not start their new share repurchase plan soon, because of Japan. The old repurchase plan will end next wednesday. (sorry, no english link) ERDBEBEN: Munich Re setzt Aktienrückkauf aus Mi, 23.03.11 16:48 MÜNCHEN (dpa-AFX) - Der weltgrößte Rückversicherer Munich Re legt angesichts der Milliardenbelastung aus Japan sein neues Aktienrückkaufprogramm auf Eis. 'Wir führen das laufende Programm bis zur Hauptversammlung im April noch zu Ende', sagte eine Konzernsprecherin am Mittwoch. 'Mit dem neuen Programm werden wir aber vorerst nicht beginnen.' Damit bestätigte sie einem Vorabbericht des 'Handelsblatts' (Donnerstag). Der Dax-Konzern hatte erst Anfang Februar ein neues Rückkaufprogramm über bis zu 500 Millionen Euro angekündigt, das bis zur Hauptversammlung im April 2012 abgeschlossen werden sollte. Im laufenden Rückkaufprogramm bis Ende April hat die Munich Re bisher Aktien im Wert von 922 Millionen Euro zurückgenommen. Dieses soll der Sprecherin zufolge bis zur geltenden Grenze von einer Milliarde Euro fortgeführt werden. Munich Re hatte wegen des Erdbebens und Tsunamis in Japan am Dienstagabend sein Gewinnziel gestrichen. Die Katastrophen dürften das Unternehmen mit 1,5 Milliarden Euro vor Steuern belasten. Das war deutlich mehr, als Analysten erwartet hatten. Das Gewinnziel von 2,4 Milliarden Euro ist aus Sicht des Vorstands nun nicht mehr zu erreichen./stw/ksb Quelle: dpa-AFX Charlie

I bought more Munich Re shares today. “Any impacts due to major accidents in Japanese nuclear power plants will not significantly affect the private insurance industry,” Munich Re said in a statement today. “In connection with earthquake covers, in Japanese personal lines business only a small portion of the risk is transferred to other countries.” The reinsurer said it’s “far too early at this stage to issue an estimate of economic and insured losses,” reiterating earlier comments. Munich Re shares dropped 3 percent to 108.40 euros in Frankfurt, following a 4.3 percent decline on March 11. Charlie

twacowfca, I think the share buyback volume is a little bit smaller: "The share buy-back programme launched in May 2010 is proceeding according to plan. By the end of January 2011, Munich Re had repurchased a total of 7 million shares with a volume of €752m. Before the next Annual General Meeting on 20 April 2011, shares with an overall volume of up to €1bn are to be acquired." it´s €248m not €1B ;)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-13/buffett-rules-out-double-dip-u-s-recession-says-berkshire-units-growing.html

My positions: 50% BRK.B 10% Tesco 10% COP 10% KFT 7,5% Munich Re 10% Sanofi-Aventis 2,5% JNJ

I think the probability of two stock market crashes in a short time frame are very low. Buffett also said this in a recent interview.

Look at the Berkshire Price at the SP addition (february 12). It went up for nearly one month after the inclusion. So I´m not sure how much index buying is before and how much after the inclusion into the Russell index. But selling at P/B of 1,33 is in my opinion too cheap.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Financial companies will displace computer and software makers as the largest industry in the Russell 3000 after the addition of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. when the index rebalances this month. The insurance and investment company run by billionaire Warren Buffett is set to be added to the Russell 3000 and Russell 1000, according to the Tacoma, Washington-based Russell Investments’ website. Berkshire is one of 38 financial companies on the preliminary list. Russell will review and update the additions June 18 and again on June 25 before they take effect. Banks and financial firms will account for 19 percent of the index, up from 15.3 percent last year, making it the biggest increase by industry based on market value. Berkshire will also account for about 1.1 percent of the rebalanced Russell 1000 and will rank in its top 20 companies, according to New York-based Investment Technology Group Inc., which monitors and analyzes changes in indexes for its institutional clients. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-14/financials-surpass-technology-companies-in-russell-rebalancing.html Cheers!

Russell 3000 - BRK Likely to be Added http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1023089420100610 Rule excluding it to be removed. It will be interesting how the share price will be affected. Cheers!