RadMan24 Posted March 2 Posted March 2 https://www.ft.com/content/9619f503-6fd5-4256-8a5a-09eeebd08692 "Buffett sounds wildfire alarm as utilities industry enters new era"
John Hjorth Posted March 2 Posted March 2 13 minutes ago, Munger_Disciple said: I thought the Gottesman's stake in Berkshire is worth a lot more than $1 billion. Perhaps already distributed to heirs? @Munger_Disciple, From the 2022 Berkshire Management Information Circular [DEF 14A] , dated March 11th 2022, where Mr. Gottesman passed away September 28th 2022 : and From my understanding of the allocation of Berkshire shares in news and the press in general attached to Mr. Gottesman, a quite large part has been owned by the investment firm First Manhattan.
valueinvesting101 Posted March 2 Posted March 2 Great article! @gfp thanks a lot for sharing. You have been very valuable member on this board. Thanks for posts and I hope you continue to prosper and share your wisdom with us. I hope medical school doesn’t increase fees and other expenses going forward too much such that this gift can benefit large numbers of doctors and hopefully inspire them for further philanthropy.
gfp Posted March 2 Posted March 2 26 minutes ago, Munger_Disciple said: I thought the Gottesman's stake in Berkshire is worth a lot more than $1 billion. Perhaps already distributed to heirs? If Sandy had never given any shares away or distributed trust shares to heirs, the Gottesmans would have over $6 Billion of Berkshire stock - over 10,000 A-shares. Over time they have been giving shares away but I'm not sure what the split is between heirs, foundations and what Ruth has left over.
Munger_Disciple Posted March 2 Posted March 2 Thanks @John Hjorth & @gfp. The number in gfp's post seems to be correct as I remember it. The rest are owned by First Manhattan's clients I believe.
jbwent63 Posted March 4 Posted March 4 On 3/1/2024 at 9:22 AM, gfp said: Attached is the National Indemnity year end NAIC filing that includes investments. There are quite a few files - I am still going through them. I will post a few more later today (FWIW, they were selling AAPL for $192.75 / share on December 27th so it could have been primarily tax related - if for some reason it "made sense" to take a gain on AAPL for the 2023 tax year). edit: they were also selling AAPL the day before in Columbia Insurance at $193.79 / share. So decent prices 20087.2023.P.AN.PI.O.M.4665561.pdf 642.51 kB · 21 downloads Thank you. It looks like more of the Japanese trading houses have been purchased since the last filing with the Japanese Stock authorities.
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 5 minutes ago, jbwent63 said: Thank you. It looks like more of the Japanese trading houses have been purchased since the last filing with the Japanese Stock authorities. Like turning a battleship... I have other filings for them but there isn't a lot of undisclosed equity trading that will make headlines. Most of the selling we knew about from the first three quarters and SEC disclosures. Whatever "secret" buying is going on is being hidden in both Harney Investment Trust (National Indemnity) and Dewey Investment Trust (Columbia Insurance).
backtothebeach Posted March 4 Posted March 4 The Japanese trading house investment is truly a masterpiece. Purchasing high, durable dividend yields, with hedged currency, using almost free money. After a 30 year sideways market, right before take off. Stunning.
Xerxes Posted March 4 Posted March 4 12 minutes ago, backtothebeach said: The Japanese trading house investment is truly a masterpiece. Purchasing high, durable dividend yields, with hedged currency, using almost free money. After a 30 year sideways market, right before take off. Stunning. stunning, but Munger characterize them as “giving Warren something to do, so he doesn’t tinker too much at larger scale” (something along those lines)
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 Just now, Xerxes said: stunning, but Munger characterize them as “giving Warren something to do, so he doesn’t tinker too much at larger scale” (something along those lines) Well Charlie also had this quote on Warren's investments in Japan, "It was like having God just opening a chest and just pouring money into it." I'm not even sure I can calculate the return on investment because the equity sliver was so small, the carry was so positive and the debt used to float the purchases and hedge the currency was so profitable. If we pencil in that we used insurance float for the tiny "equity" sliver then I guess this is as close to warren giving a master class on free money as we will get. h/t kingswell newsletter for the chart
keegomaster Posted March 4 Posted March 4 2 hours ago, gfp said: Well Charlie also had this quote on Warren's investments in Japan, "It was like having God just opening a chest and just pouring money into it." I'm not even sure I can calculate the return on investment because the equity sliver was so small, the carry was so positive and the debt used to float the purchases and hedge the currency was so profitable. If we pencil in that we used insurance float for the tiny "equity" sliver then I guess this is as close to warren giving a master class on free money as we will get. h/t kingswell newsletter for the chart The chart title is a bit of an understatement with positions up 120% to 260%
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 2 minutes ago, keegomaster said: The chart title is a bit of an understatement with positions up 120% to 260% I assume the chart is translating back to US dollars but I didn't make it or know the data source. Chart source for me was https://www.kingswell.io
longlake95 Posted March 4 Posted March 4 2 hours ago, backtothebeach said: The Japanese trading house investment is truly a masterpiece. Purchasing high, durable dividend yields, with hedged currency, using almost free money. After a 30 year sideways market, right before take off. Stunning. +1
valueinvesting101 Posted March 4 Posted March 4 On 3/1/2024 at 6:22 AM, gfp said: Attached is the National Indemnity year end NAIC filing that includes investments. There are quite a few files - I am still going through them. I will post a few more later today (FWIW, they were selling AAPL for $192.75 / share on December 27th so it could have been primarily tax related - if for some reason it "made sense" to take a gain on AAPL for the 2023 tax year). edit: they were also selling AAPL the day before in Columbia Insurance at $193.79 / share. So decent prices 20087.2023.P.AN.PI.O.M.4665561.pdf 642.51 kB · 23 downloads Thanks a lot @gfp for posting this. There are no depository from Japan on page 39 of this filing. Can Japanese companies be held without depository? Also ICICI Bank, Mumbai India is listed as a depository with balance of 1,500. Does that mean Berkshire is holding investment in India valued at 1.5 Billion? I couldn't find any mention of Indian security in the filing. Is it related to Paytm holding which was liquidated earlier in 2023?
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 (edited) 1 hour ago, valueinvesting101 said: Thanks a lot @gfp for posting this. There are no depository from Japan on page 39 of this filing. Can Japanese companies be held without depository? Also ICICI Bank, Mumbai India is listed as a depository with balance of 1,500. Does that mean Berkshire is holding investment in India valued at 1.5 Billion? I couldn't find any mention of Indian security in the filing. Is it related to Paytm holding which was liquidated earlier in 2023? Re: ICICI Bank, that is literally only $1,500 USD worth of bank deposit cash sitting in the bank. I don't know where Berkshire "custodies" the Japanese shares but it is probably a division of Citi (or BNY). The shares are purchased using Berkshire's go-to large block trader, Wallachbeth Capital (which is who Warren uses for almost all large trades for the last several years). I have no idea which bank wires the JPY to Wallachbeth to settle up since the bank account balances are just shown in their US Dollar equivalents here. Maybe I could tell by looking at past filings right after a Yen bond sale was completed but I've never wondered myself. *edit: I looked around and none of the Berkshire insurance subsidiaries have a banking relationship with a Japanese bank. I don't know what they are delivering to Wallachbeth to settle up or from where. Might come from Wells but the main National Indemnity Wells Fargo bank account pays t-bill-like interest so there isn't any JPY in there. FWIW, as far as I can tell Ted Weschler tends to trade through this 'woman-owned' broker dealer - "Glen Eagle Wealth" https://gleneagleadv.com/institutional-markets Edited March 4 by gfp
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 It's kind of funny, @valueinvesting101, you got me checking into various depository / banking relationships for the BRK subsidiaries and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty (the newer, fast growing Excess and Surplus lines primary outfit) actually has a bank account at Paypal Holdings. Surprised me. Everyone has a venmo account I suppose
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 The best I can tell about the Japanese investments is that Berkshire doesn't actually take the JPY they borrow from the bonds and use that to buy the Japanese stocks. They borrow the JPY at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BHI, parent, holdco) level and receive JPY and probably immediately swap almost all of it into US treasury bills. They pay the interest in JPY. Then, separately, they buy shares of the 5 sogo shosha companies inside National Indemnity, an insurance subsidiary of BHI. They transfer National Indemnity's treasury bills and some USD cash to Wallachbeth Capital to settle up their trades.
Munger_Disciple Posted March 4 Posted March 4 (edited) BHE is named a defendant in lawsuit on real estate commissions: https://www.wsj.com/finance/warren-buffett-is-getting-dragged-into-the-real-estate-commissions-litigation-79696153?mod=hp_lead_pos10 Edited March 4 by Munger_Disciple
gfp Posted March 4 Posted March 4 28 minutes ago, Munger_Disciple said: BHE is named a defendant in lawsuit on real estate commissions: https://www.wsj.com/finance/warren-buffett-is-getting-dragged-into-the-real-estate-commissions-litigation-79696153?mod=hp_lead_pos10 I'm starting to feel sorry for the old guy. He reads all these newspapers every day - opens up the Journal: Apple fined $2 Billion, about to be sued for antitrust, Pacificorp wildfire verdicts, HomeServices, BHE sued for billions!, Haslam's screwing you! It's rough out there for the deep-pocketed.
Munger_Disciple Posted March 4 Posted March 4 10 minutes ago, gfp said: I'm starting to feel sorry for the old guy. He reads all these newspapers every day - opens up the Journal: Apple fined $2 Billion, about to be sued for antitrust, Pacificorp wildfire verdicts, HomeServices, BHE sued for billions!, Haslam's screwing you! It's rough out there for the deep-pocketed. Yes indeed.
Munger_Disciple Posted March 4 Posted March 4 BNSF news: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bnsf-railway-furloughs-mechanics-in-kansas-nebraska-c56ba7a5?mod=hp_minor_pos13
jbwent63 Posted March 5 Posted March 5 19 hours ago, longlake95 said: +1 With the dividends being much larger than the interest on the related debt, if you take into account all the elements, is it possible that the equity sliver has been ground down to zero or less at this point? Therefore making the return uncalculatable i.e. infinity?
gfp Posted March 15 Posted March 15 BRK proxy - https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/000119312524069107/d512828ddef14a.htm
valueinvesting101 Posted March 15 Posted March 15 (edited) Looks like repurchasing continued from February 12 to March 6. About 2813 A shares were repurchased. Not sure if these were purchased from market or via private transaction. May be it was a private purchase from Gottesman family. Bit surprised that purchases continued during this period when average price of above 400 and lowest was around 395 for B shares. Edited March 15 by valueinvesting101
charlieruane Posted March 16 Posted March 16 Apropos of nothing, a fun fact about Howard Buffett's foundation: according to its latest 990 filing, although Howard receives no standard compensation for his role as Chairman and CEO, he does receive contributions to an employee benefit plan. In 2022, those contributions totaled $15,219. Anyone have any color on this? Screenshot from the 2022 990 is attached for reference.
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