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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest longinvestor
Posted

 

I told myself on Friday, as the earnings came out that the media would fixate on this. It took all of two hours after the market opened. Same old arguments. When is the next elephant purchase? Why not a dividend? All questions have been answered in the annual report or at the AGM.

 

One thing is certain, few other companies have this kind of a problem! Life at BRK moves at a different pace than the headline.

Posted
While Buffett has said that low yields made him avoid bonds, not even stocks have tempted him much this year. The filing showed that Berkshire spent $2.05 billion on equities in the first half, about a third of the total from a year earlier. Its sales of stock more than doubled to $2.96 billion.

 

Thought this bit was interesting.

 

Looks like not even Todd and Ted found much to buy.

 

;)

  • 3 weeks later...
Guest longinvestor
Posted

BRK's $3 Billion preferred shares will accrue a 9% coupon

Plus something?  Sweeteners?

Posted

We probably won't know until they make a filing.  I would guess that it has his usual redemption premium (~10%) and it is possible that it is a compounding security that earns 9% on accrued dividends (ie, doesn't pay cash dividends)

 

BRK's $3 Billion preferred shares will accrue a 9% coupon

Plus something?  Sweeteners?

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest longinvestor
Posted

We probably won't know until they make a filing.  I would guess that it has his usual redemption premium (~10%) and it is possible that it is a compounding security that earns 9% on accrued dividends (ie, doesn't pay cash dividends)

 

BRK's $3 Billion preferred shares will accrue a 9% coupon

Plus something?  Sweeteners?

Berkshire gets 1.75% of the BK-TH company, per the NYT report

 

  • 4 weeks later...
Guest longinvestor
Posted

Cross sell Geico.

 

Loan working capital to dealership for inventory. Put that $55B to work.

 

Financing car purchases?  Or partner with WFC for referrals ? Underwrite leases? GM partnership?

 

Clayton Homes comes to mind.

Posted

Similar in theme to his regulated investments, I guess, auto dealerships only exist because they are required to exist, and once you have enough scale, I assume it's hard for another guy to break in.

Guest longinvestor
Posted

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2012/11/21/kansas-city-entrepreneur-cecil-van.html?page=all

 

My inquisitiveness lead me to doing searches on the Van Tuyl group and why BRK was most interested in them. Well, this obituary for the senior, Cecil Van Tuyl captures it well. Their growth has come down to this..

 

“He would train people to run his dealerships throughout the country and eventually become partners and share an ownership stake with him,” Robinson said. “He impacted the lives of people from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Bloomington, Ill., Kansas City, St. Joseph, Houston and Dallas. He would train people to go out and buy dealerships, then he’d have people in strategic spots at those dealerships to make sure they were successful.”

 

Their secret sauce has been their mentoring of the dealer-owners. Their continued growth under Berkshire appears to only be limited by their ability to continue effectively mentoring any new dealers who come under the fold. Capital is not the limitation.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Van Tuyl is a big client of the company I work for. They've always seemed to be a well-run dealer group in my experience with them.

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