Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[Jaygo]

4 minutes ago, Hektor said:

I would be surprised if WEB is not. He for one most likely would be monitoring the $ flowing from ACME (and every other business) into HQ.

He's 94 years old. I think it is unlikely. Maybe a quick glance at the numbers on paper but not a real assermentent.

 

 

 

[John Hjorth]

@Masterofnone,

 

Here are some data :

 

Liquid assets at Berkshire holding company level :

 

 

That's USD 21.706 B at YE2023.

 

Then we have dividend restrictions [without prior regulative approval] in the insurance companies [where most of the money is] at about USD 31 B :

 

 

Then we have the shares outstanding at July 21^st 2024 :

 

A shares : 533,234

B shares : 1,325,192,509.

 

A USD 20 dividend per B share thus expropriates USD [[533,234*1,500]+ 1,325,192,509] * 20 = USD 2,125,044,509 * 20 = USD 42,500,870,180  [USD 42.5 B] of cash in the group system.

 

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I'm not ruling anything out here. But I consider it highly unlikely.

 

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Also, I try - speculatively, yes, - to visualize, inside my head, a meeting between Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, Abel telling Jain, that now is the piggy bank getting slaughtered for the sake of a dividend, so that the underwriting capacity in the insurance companies is getting limited going forward. I think [speculate] that Jain in such scenario would pack his personal stuff, turn in his resignation, leave office, and call it day, after now almost 40 years at Berkshire.

[UK]

https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/berkshire-apple-stake-sale-buffett-9a672779

 

Yet no mention of possibility of AAPL price increasing because BRK had stopped selling:)

[woodstove]

On 10/15/2024 at 10:27 AM, Xerxes said:

There was a short CNBC interview with BRK board member back at the AGM, where she made it clear that there will be no regular dividends, but perhaps one day special dividend. 

Lots of talented investors, but how to tell them from lucky coin-flippers (per WEB intro to Ben Graham's Intelligent Investor)?  If you don't know -- and life is uncertain -- I like the discipline of money manager given X capital to work with, "forced" to return about 4 pct of capital to investors.  Can be a variety of ways - special or regular dividends, repurchases to reduce number of shares, spinoffs, etc.  But having to make concrete return annually reduces a bit of the agent-ego risk.  If business is well managed but context is difficult, and cannot return 4 pct of capital annually, well then, let the business shrink.  One can play with the numbers and spreadsheets.  It's the discipline that matters.

[sholland]

23 hours ago, Jaygo said:

Do you think anyone at HQ is looking at ACME Brink to ensure its being run in the best way possible….Managers must be managed and the bigger the wider the assortment of businesses the tougher this becomes.

Buffett gets monthly numbers on all the businesses.

Buffett and Munger believe that have having honest and able managers and getting out of their way (bureaucracy is like a cancer) is the reason that Berkshire works so well.

 

[John Hjorth]

'Delegation verging to abdication'.

[CassiusKing1]

Man do I miss Charlie.