Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[Ulti]

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/squawk-pod/id1480890290?i=1000586312375

 

full Charlie Munger podcast cnbc yesterday

[Monsieur_dee]

2 minutes ago, Ulti said:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/squawk-pod/id1480890290?i=1000586312375

 

full Charlie Munger podcast cnbc yesterday

Thank you. Was just looking for this. 

[thowed]

I don't know how many of you know Overlook - one of the great Asian Funds over 20+ years.  They are very straight Phil Fisher type investors.  They were early investors in TSM and have held it all the way through.  The founder of Overlook was so into it, he actually wrote a letter to Warren saying how he thought it was a great stock for him.  So WEB may well have been following it for a while waiting patiently...

[gfp]

This screenshot is from National Indemnity Q3 NAIC filing - showing purchases of stock inside National Indemnity only.  I thought it was interesting that Buffett was buying TSM as early as August 25th at around $88/share.  Makes it more likely he continued to buy the stock after quarter end but that is a guess.

 

(I should add that several of these entries are intercompany transfers and the rightmost column is price paid, second from the right is number of shares)

 

 

He bought another billion dollars worth of TSM at around $76.84 / sh. inside Columbia Insurance Company.

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by gfp

[UK]

5 hours ago, thowed said:

I don't know how many of you know Overlook - one of the great Asian Funds over 20+ years.  They are very straight Phil Fisher type investors.  They were early investors in TSM and have held it all the way through.  The founder of Overlook was so into it, he actually wrote a letter to Warren saying how he thought it was a great stock for him.  So WEB may well have been following it for a while waiting patiently...

 

Interesting, never heard about them. Do you know how their portfolio looks like or what are their top positions? Also foundthis one on them: https://youtu.be/Zs0ZDbmpIOk

[UK]

26 minutes ago, gfp said:

This screenshot is from National Indemnity Q3 NAIC filing - showing purchases of stock inside National Indemnity only.  I thought it was interesting that Buffett was buying TSM as early as August 25th at around $88/share.  Makes it more likely he continued to buy the stock after quarter end but that is a guess.

 

(I should add that several of these entries are intercompany transfers and the rightmost column is price paid, second from the right is number of shares)

 

 

He bought another billion dollars worth of TSM at around $76.84 / sh. inside Columbia Insurance Company.

 

 

Very interesting, thanks for finding this out. So how sure we could be, that purchase was made by WB? 99 per cent?, 50/50?

[gfp]

2 minutes ago, UK said:

 

Very interesting, thanks for finding this out. So how sure we could be, that purchase was made by WB? 99 per cent?, 50/50?

 

If you can't ask him you have to guess.  We'll see how big the position gets.  Personally I think this is Warren and Charlie and not Ted and Todd.  If it blows out to 8 or 9 billion by year end I think we can put high odds on it being Warren.

[maxthetrade]

9 hours ago, gfp said:

his screenshot is from National Indemnity Q3 NAIC filing - showing purchases of stock inside National Indemnity only.  I thought it was interesting that Buffett was buying TSM as early as August 25th at around $88/share.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Luke]

14 hours ago, gfp said:

This screenshot is from National Indemnity Q3 NAIC filing - showing purchases of stock inside National Indemnity only.  I thought it was interesting that Buffett was buying TSM as early as August 25th at around $88/share.  Makes it more likely he continued to buy the stock after quarter end but that is a guess.

 

(I should add that several of these entries are intercompany transfers and the rightmost column is price paid, second from the right is number of shares)

 

 

He bought another billion dollars worth of TSM at around $76.84 / sh. inside Columbia Insurance Company.

 

What kind of filing is this? I dont understand how you were able to find this information. Columbia Insurance what? Would like to understand

[gfp]

These are from quarterly NAIC filings:  NAIC = National Association of Insurance Commissioners.  Columbia Insurance is a large insurance subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that goes all the way back to the Diversified Retailing days (it was a subsidiary of Diversified Retailing, the department store company).  National Indemnity even larger, as you would expect.  Other individual filers are General Re and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance.  Some insurance subsidiaries don't file on their own because they are subsidiaries of other insurance companies.  These are screenshots because to find this information in the filing would take most people a lot of time.  Here are a few of the Q3 filings (attached) - edit: they are too big and taking too long to upload so here is one.

 

You can buy the individual filings at the naic website here https://insdata.naic.org

 

Another interesting thing you can see from these filings is the internal structure of Berkshire Hathaway through the multiple Org charts they include on what all the corporate entities are, which subsidiaries own what, etc.  Also it becomes very obvious that Berkshire went huge on affordable housing tax credits when it hired over the guy that build AIG's affordable housing business.

 

National Indemnity Q3 NAIC.pdf

Edited November 16, 2022 by gfp

[Luke]

30 minutes ago, gfp said:

These are from quarterly NAIC filings:  NAIC = National Association of Insurance Commissioners.  Columbia Insurance is a large insurance subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that goes all the way back to the Diversified Retailing days (it was a subsidiary of Diversified Retailing, the department store company).  National Indemnity even larger, as you would expect.  Other individual filers are General Re and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance.  Some insurance subsidiaries don't file on their own because they are subsidiaries of other insurance companies.  These are screenshots because to find this information in the filing would take most people a lot of time.  Here are a few of the Q3 filings (attached) - edit: they are too big and taking too long to upload so here is one.

 

You can buy the individual filings at the naic website here https://insdata.naic.org

 

Another interesting thing you can see from these filings is the internal structure of Berkshire Hathaway through the multiple Org charts they include on what all the corporate entities are, which subsidiaries own what, etc.  Also it becomes very obvious that Berkshire went huge on affordable housing tax credits when it hired over the guy that build AIG's affordable housing business.

 

National Indemnity Q3 NAIC.pdf 37.28 MB · 1 download

Great, Thank you!!

[LC]

1 hour ago, gfp said:

Also it becomes very obvious that Berkshire went huge on affordable housing tax credits when it hired over the guy that build AIG's affordable housing business.

 

Wow - yeah they did.

 

Do you know the broad strokes of the underlying economics?

 

Is it just that they buying these tax credits for say 80cents and redeeming at par? 

Some brief research on Lihtc's indicate they are computed annually? based on the underlying property's performance (occupancy). So is BRK also making some underlying bet on affordable multi-unit housing? 

Edited November 16, 2022 by LC

[gfp]

[LC]

To my knowledge tax credits are purchased in advance by a bank (state street being the biggest at least as of a few years ago). The developer needs access to cash at day 0, not over the next ten years. So they sell the credits.

 

Now once State street or whomever owns the credits, they probably make a market on them. How those credits are bought/sold around in the secondary market, and how they are valued (and to whom they are most valuable) is more of my question. 

[gfp]

So Berkshire hired Michael Fowler to run this operation, who is the number one executive in the space.  He built a huge operation inside AIG that was called SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners.  AIG sold it to Blackstone I think.  This is an in-house operation at Berkshire, not just a case of Berkshire buying tax credits from a bank because Berkshire has a big tax credit appetite.

 

Here is one article that mentions Berkshire's operation and Fowler -

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120412/NEWS03/120419922/oracle-of-omaha-invests-in-chicago-area-affordable-housing

[LC]

Thanks - appreciate the context. Looks like when WB mentioned a few years ago he’s be buying as many SFHs as possible….he went about it in a Berkshire-appropriate way. 

[UK]

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-16/-next-warren-buffett-curse-hit-sam-bankman-fried-but-it-isn-t-always-fatal

[gfp]

This link opens a PDF of a new E&S Insurance industry publication with several articles quoting executives on the state of the industry.  These magazines are usually not free but this one is a new launch from 'The Insurer.'  Berkshire is big and growing in Excess and Surplus lines (BHSI) so I am linking it here but it may be interesting to other insurance investors (FFH, MKL, etc) as well.

 

https://pdf.static.prod.wbm.infomaker.io/JcntEWo9rNCEbfRJb1rjM3trOeg.pdf

[gfp]

https://berkshirehathawaytx.com
 

killer name for your crypto biz bro

 

https://berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov1822.pdf

[whatstheofficerproblem]

1 hour ago, gfp said:

https://berkshirehathawaytx.com
 

killer name for your crypto biz bro

 

Silver - Invest $6000 gets $12000, $50000 gets $155950

Gold - Invest $6000 gets 35200, $70000 gets $200000

 

Nothing shady at all. Very conservative returns, almost thought this was a mutual fund.

Edited November 20, 2022 by whatstheofficerproblem

[Blugolds]

3 hours ago, whatstheofficerproblem said:

 

Silver - Invest $6000 gets $12000, $50000 gets $155950

Gold - Invest $6000 gets 35200, $70000 gets $200000

 

Nothing shady at all. Very conservative returns, almost thought this was a mutual fund.

 

Guys....they have over 2800 positive reviews...4.8/5 overall...

 

But whatever, haters gonna hate...

 

This kind of stuff makes me sick, stealing name recognition in an attempt to add credibility/legitimacy to a scheme. The sad thing is, they are gonna pull in the naïve. 

[gfp]

I guess it would be entertaining if the single family home address they list is actually where these geniuses are living.

 

Also, you have to appreciate the honesty in this FAQ entry.  Never is a strong word but they weren't afraid to use it:

 

[fareastwarriors]

23 hours ago, gfp said:

https://berkshirehathawaytx.com
 

killer name for your crypto biz bro

 

https://berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov1822.pdf

 

 

that's disgusting. hope they get taken down or fail fast! 

Edited November 21, 2022 by fareastwarriors

[gfp]

Berkshire reported higher stakes in the 5 Japanese equities and is issuing Yen bonds again 

 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/buffetts-berkshire-boosts-stakes-japans-five-biggest-trading-houses-2022-11-21/

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000119312522289445/d372820d424b5.htm

 

who says carry trade is dead

Edited November 21, 2022 by gfp

[Munger_Disciple]

Sokol news: 

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/former-berkshire-executive-david-sokol-asks-leniency-elizabeth-holmes-sentencing-2022-11

 

WTF???