Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[wabuffo]

Really appreciate these National Indemnity filings, gfp!   Thank you.

 

Bill

[gfp]

4 minutes ago, wabuffo said:

Really appreciate these National Indemnity filings, gfp!   Thank you.

 

Bill

 

No problem Bill.  Here is General Re if you want to see that one.  I haven't pulled Columbia or Berkshire Specialty this quarter.  Gen Re doesn't usually have much investment activity but often holds whatever European investments BRK makes.  

 

 

Gen Re Q2 25 22039.2025.P.Q2.P.O.2.5016700.pdf

[jbwent63]

1 hour ago, gfp said:

 

No problem Bill.  Here is General Re if you want to see that one.  I haven't pulled Columbia or Berkshire Specialty this quarter.  Gen Re doesn't usually have much investment activity but often holds whatever European investments BRK makes.  

 

 

Gen Re Q2 25 22039.2025.P.Q2.P.O.2.5016700.pdf 3.12 MB · 9 downloads

Thank you sir. Very informative.

Jeff

[charlieruane]

Back on the T&T beat for a sec - at 47:50 in this interview, Abel says the following of the dynamic duo: 

 

"...and outside of having relationships with both of them—which are important—that's their portfolio, and that's the way it'll always be, and they'll manage it accordingly."

 

Ever since Buffett made his whole "actually, I think ultimate capital allocation authority should rest with Berkshire's CEO" pivot, I've wondered what Abel would do with T&T. This comment might be the answer...

 

EDIT: That said, the size of "their portfolio" under Abel is still a big unknown.

Edited August 19, 2025 by charlieruane

[mengan]

Additional FYI, there are some foreign holdings not reported in the NAIC/Gen RE or Dataroma, mainly smaller foreign holdings. Not 100% sure how accurate it is:

 

Naito: https://simplywall.st/stocks/jp/capital-goods/tse-7624/naito-shares/ownership

YG-1: https://simplywall.st/stocks/kr/capital-goods/kosdaq-a019210/yg-1-shares/ownership

[gfp]

12 minutes ago, mengan said:

Additional FYI, there are some foreign holdings not reported in the NAIC/Gen RE or Dataroma, mainly smaller foreign holdings. Not 100% sure how accurate it is:

 

Naito: https://simplywall.st/stocks/jp/capital-goods/tse-7624/naito-shares/ownership

YG-1: https://simplywall.st/stocks/kr/capital-goods/kosdaq-a019210/yg-1-shares/ownership

 

There are a bunch of places Berkshire investment positions can live and only a few categories that are required to be disclosed.  I would assume these investments are owned by IMC (Iscar).

[longterminvestor]

I was looking at these filings.  Question for the group.  There is a large list of "entities" with names that look like affordable housing - probably for the tax credits.  Berkshire/Mr. Buffett has always said they don't love the real estate business however it seems there is real estate in here with the names.  Anyone know what these are?

 

for example:

[gfp]

16 minutes ago, longterminvestor said:

I was looking at these filings.  Question for the group.  There is a large list of "entities" with names that look like affordable housing - probably for the tax credits.  Berkshire/Mr. Buffett has always said they don't love the real estate business however it seems there is real estate in here with the names.  Anyone know what these are?

 

for example:

 

Berkshire has done this for many years and hired some of the best people in the space to run it for them.  Mike Fowler was running it last time I checked.  He ran a large affordable housing tax credit / tax equity business for someone else before Berkshire hired him.  Berkshire is purely providing capital for a tax equity investment because of their large tax appetite.

 

Here is an article with some background on Fowler and Berkshire -

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

 

(to be clear - by having this division in-house, Berkshire is creating tax credits and USING THEM themselves, not selling them like many other participants in this industry do.  I have done some of this with historic tax credits and when I don't have a tax appetite myself and don't have a partner on a deal that signed up to get the credits, we sell the state portion of the tax credit for around 87 cents on the dollar.  The federal historic credits are not transferrable so you need a partner in the deal to use them.  I don't know how affordable credits differ but it is probably similar.)

 

edit: this is the dude - he is number one in his field I believe

https://continuitybiosciences.com/team/mike-fowler/

Edited August 20, 2025 by gfp

[oscarazocar]

On 8/20/2025 at 1:51 PM, gfp said:

 

Berkshire has done this for many years and hired some of the best people in the space to run it for them.  Mike Fowler was running it last time I checked.  He ran a large affordable housing tax credit / tax equity business for someone else before Berkshire hired him.  Berkshire is purely providing capital for a tax equity investment because of their large tax appetite.

 

Here is an article with some background on Fowler and Berkshire -

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

 

(to be clear - by having this division in-house, Berkshire is creating tax credits and USING THEM themselves, not selling them like many other participants in this industry do.  I have done some of this with historic tax credits and when I don't have a tax appetite myself and don't have a partner on a deal that signed up to get the credits, we sell the state portion of the tax credit for around 87 cents on the dollar.  The federal historic credits are not transferrable so you need a partner in the deal to use them.  I don't know how affordable credits differ but it is probably similar.)

 

edit: this is the dude - he is number one in his field I believe

https://continuitybiosciences.com/team/mike-fowler/

 

A number of public companies have a tax credit operation - Berkshire, Nelnet, Liberty has done it in its various entities.  Hershey's has a surprisingly large business here and has invested $250-300m for years which lowers their tax rate by about 950 bps per year.  If you want to get into the weeds on HSY, you should probably back this out and tax their earnings at a ~24% rate you shouldn't capitalize the full reduction to the required investment.  They are very high IRR investments but low multple of invested capital, basically if you invest $250m you get out a large amount of that in year one then a small trickle for the following few years.

 

https://hershey.gcs-web.com/static-files/2d5e444c-3c3b-49f2-b359-6f6b0841409e

[mengan]

More Japanese trading houses

[gfp]

It seems like Greg Abel is doing some of this grouping of Berkshire's subsidiaries under the more talented management of one of the subsidiaries.  We just saw it in the formation of "BH Jewelry Group"  which was Helzberg management taking over at Ben Bridge (and probably eventually others).  And I just noticed they had done this with most of their Shoe holdings (not including Brooks Running).  https://www.berkshirehathawayshoes.com

 

I also learned that Dexter (not dead yet!) sells the number one bowling shoe (probably not the number one rental bowling shoe).  A small market to be sure.

 

press on BH Jewelry -

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/berkshire-hathaway-ben-bridge/

https://professionalwatches.com/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-forms-bh-jewelry-group/

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/helzberg-ben-bridge-teaming/

 

Warren had earlier done some of this, leaning on management talent at Marmon group to run divisions that needed supervision and, I believe, even providing initial management oversight for Duracell.

 

Just interesting to see the changes.  Greg's a busy guy - fewer reporting companies is going to make his job less impossible.

 

Also, rat poison company showed up on the website

https://berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html

[ValueMaven]

Bell Labs is now listed as a Sub on the website!

 

https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html

[DooDiligence]

Finally. Maybe now we won't have to listen to the cash pile critics.

[Spekulatius]

8 hours ago, gfp said:

It seems like Greg Abel is doing some of this grouping of Berkshire's subsidiaries under the more talented management of one of the subsidiaries.  We just saw it in the formation of "BH Jewelry Group"  which was Helzberg management taking over at Ben Bridge (and probably eventually others).  And I just noticed they had done this with most of their Shoe holdings (not including Brooks Running).  https://www.berkshirehathawayshoes.com

 

I also learned that Dexter (not dead yet!) sells the number one bowling shoe (probably not the number one rental bowling shoe).  A small market to be sure.

 

press on BH Jewelry -

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/berkshire-hathaway-ben-bridge/

https://professionalwatches.com/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-forms-bh-jewelry-group/

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/helzberg-ben-bridge-teaming/

 

Warren had earlier done some of this, leaning on management talent at Marmon group to run divisions that needed supervision and, I believe, even providing initial management oversight for Duracell.

 

Just interesting to see the changes.  Greg's a busy guy - fewer reporting companies is going to make his job less impossible.

 

Also, rat poison company showed up on the website

https://berkshirehathaway.com/subs/sublinks.html

I am old enough to remember that Bell Labs was the #1 research institution ahead of Xerox Parc. How the mighty have fallen.

Edited August 30, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Munger_Disciple]

33 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

I am old enough to remember that Bell Labs was the #1 research institution ahead of Xerox Parc. How the mighty have fallen.

 

It's not the same Bell Labs. It's a pest control company! 

[John Hjorth]

Warren Buffett turning the corner of 95 years age today. Now that's certainly something, and a high age indeed! Good that he has started taking it more easy in recent years.

 

He has served Berkshire Hathaways shareholders very well, including the Lady of the House, I, our parents, when they were alive, and quite a few other family members.

 

I think about if and hope that he is at fairly good health with a clear and reasonably sharp mind  still, otherwise it sucks getting so old.

 

My thoughts now and then circles also around his wife Astrid Minks, which we haven't heard anything about for years.

Edited August 30, 2025 by John Hjorth

[mengan]

Adding a Holdco on-top of two shoe companies is not necessarily better as it adds another layer of management overhead. If they are underperforming, maybe best is to restructure them rather than slapping on a holdco.

[MungerWunger]

Kraft Heinz to split into two companies 

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/kraft-heinz-split.html

[Munger_Disciple]

Warren is "disappointed" with Kraft Heinz split:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/09/02/warren-buffett-says-he-is-adisappointeda-in-kraft-heinz-split.html

 

Imagine KHZ didn't give a shit about what Berkshire (their largest shareholder) thought! Apparently the company says no shareholder vote needed for the split. 

[wabuffo]

This is the second time Kraft (Old Kraft-Mondelez) has burned Warren in a major transaction but avoiding a shareholder vote.   

 

Back in 2010, (pre-Heinz merger) Mondelez bought Cadbury but avoided a shareholder vote by selling its Pizza business in a low-ball sale to avoid issuing enough shares in the deal that would've triggered a shareholder vote.   Buffett panned both the Cadbury deal and the Pizza sale but it all went through anyway and Warren was publicly furious in a CNBC interview. 

 

Shortly thereafter Mondelez and Kraft split up into two companies.   

 

Bill

Edited September 2, 2025 by wabuffo

[Munger_Disciple]

48 minutes ago, wabuffo said:

This is the second time Kraft (Old Kraft-Mondelez) has burned Warren in a major transaction but avoiding a shareholder vote.   

 

Back in 2010, (pre-Heinz merger) Mondelez bought Cadbury but avoided a shareholder vote by selling its Pizza business in a low-ball sale to avoid issuing enough shares in the deal that would've triggered a shareholder vote.   Buffett panned both the Cadbury deal and the Pizza sale but it all went through anyway and was publicly furious in a CNBC interview. 

 

Shortly thereafter Mondelez and Kraft split up into two companies.   

 

Bill

 

Great memory @wabuffo! Yes, I recall that deal now. The worst part of that deal was that Kraft not only overpaid for Cadbury but they also paid a huge amount of taxes when they sold the pizza business. 

Edited September 2, 2025 by Munger_Disciple

[ratiman]

Here's the plan: buy the legacy KHC brands with a stock for assets transaction, create a CPG platform within Berkshire, buy Smuckers, create a coffee giant with Smuckers (Folgers, Dunkin) and KHC coffee (Maxwell House, Gevalia) and then buy some of the redundant coffee assets from Keurig JDE as it merges. Fold Jif and Smuckers into the new coffee / CPG platform to rival the CPG giants, sell off the pet food. I realize nobody thinks this is a good idea but a CPG company within Berkshire is a natural fit, it should have been done a long time ago. 

[John Hjorth]

19 minutes ago, ratiman said:

Here's the plan: buy the legacy KHC brands with a stock for assets transaction, create a CPG platform within Berkshire, buy Smuckers, create a coffee giant with Smuckers (Folgers, Dunkin) and KHC coffee (Maxwell House, Gevalia) and then buy some of the redundant coffee assets from Keurig JDE as it merges. Fold Jif and Smuckers into the new coffee / CPG platform to rival the CPG giants, sell off the pet food. I realize nobody thinks this is a good idea but a CPG company within Berkshire is a natural fit, it should have been done a long time ago. 

 

@ratiman, thank you,

 

I diden't even know that Gevalia is a KHC coffee brand. It's my households coffe brand, no excemptions. We grind our own coffee beans ourselves just before each brewing. coffee.

[gfp]

9 hours ago, wabuffo said:

and Warren was publicly furious in a CNBC interview. 

 

 

Oh man I remember that like it was yesterday.  The TV anchor asked Warren "how he felt" and he deadpanned, "poorer."

[bizaro86]

2 hours ago, ratiman said:

Here's the plan: buy the legacy KHC brands with a stock for assets transaction, create a CPG platform within Berkshire, buy Smuckers, create a coffee giant with Smuckers (Folgers, Dunkin) and KHC coffee (Maxwell House, Gevalia) and then buy some of the redundant coffee assets from Keurig JDE as it merges. Fold Jif and Smuckers into the new coffee / CPG platform to rival the CPG giants, sell off the pet food. I realize nobody thinks this is a good idea but a CPG company within Berkshire is a natural fit, it should have been done a long time ago. 

 

Bonus points if you can flip pet food to Mars for a stake in that private company.