Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[Sleepwell]

did not see this one coming...

 

Replacing Bill as CEO will be Todd Combs, one of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment managers. “Todd has a strong career in insurance,” said Ajit Jain. “He initially worked at Progressive Insurance Company before going to graduate school to begin an investing career.” Since 2010, Combs has been an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway.

 

In addition to becoming GEICO’s CEO, Combs will continue to manage $14 billion of investments for Berkshire Hathaway.

 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191223005299/en/GEICO%E2%80%99s-Roberts-Retire-2020-Succeeded-Todd-Combs

[cubsfan]

Shocker! --  will be interesting to see if they hire another investment manager

[rogermunibond]

I find this quite surprising.  Combs was at Progressive for how long?  Maybe 3-6 years before going to get this MBA?

 

That's there is no internal GEICO candidate who knows the business and has the confidence of Buffett and Jain is surprising.

[StubbleJumper]

I find this quite surprising.  Combs was at Progressive for how long?  Maybe 3-6 years before going to get this MBA?

 

That's there is no internal GEICO candidate who knows the business and has the confidence of Buffett and Jain is surprising.

 

 

More likely this is a case of longer-term succession planning.  WEB has a successor chosen (maybe Jain?), but chances are that successor is already relatively old.  It's not a bad idea to get a couple of other younger guys a bit more P&C experience, which might make them better positioned for a potential CEO role in 2025 or 2028.

 

 

SJ

[Dynamic]

I think the criteria used when hiring Combs and Weschler as investment managers were rather revealing of their characteristics. One criterion was that they demonstrate a good understand of tail risk which is rather crucial to sustaining Berkshire's fortress like balance sheet, and I think Combs' experience in the nitty gritty detail of banks and insurance and he has probably demonstrated to Jain and Buffett that he really gets it and will be sure to eliminate the slightest chance that GEICO gets wiped out by black swan events.

 

I'm quite glad to see that Roberts is staying on until this time next year which should help smooth the transition.

[Munger_Disciple]

I am sure Combs is a very capable guy and wish him great success at his new gig. It is however a bit worrying that a significant division like GEICO doesn't have an internal candidate for CEO job. Or perhaps Ajit is not too happy with the bench @GEICO, so he is willing to take a gamble on Combs who probably reminds him of himself in 1985. Naturally being CEO of 40,000 people at GEICO is quite different from being an investment manager; time will tell if this is a good move.

[alpha]

I find this quite surprising.  Combs was at Progressive for how long?  Maybe 3-6 years before going to get this MBA?

 

That's there is no internal GEICO candidate who knows the business and has the confidence of Buffett and Jain is surprising.

 

I also find this surprising, with all the money GEICO spends on the employee compensation program I thought they would have a selection of next generation execs groomed to take over. If it is part of succession planning I don't understand where he fits into the mix, maybe 3 roles with Abel as CEO, Jain running insurance, and Combs managing the investment portfolio... ???

[Munger_Disciple]

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-23/warren-buffett-s-new-year-s-resolution?srnd=premium

 

Good opinion piece by Tara Lachapelle

[Guest longinvestor]

With the Combs move, I sense the big transition announcement coming in 2020. It will be 50 years since the winding down of the Buffett partnership.

[Guest longinvestor]

And how about Weschler?

[Guest longinvestor]

The Combs move could well be the long term transition plan for Jain. If Jain is irreplaceable as Buffett often has said, they need a long term development plan for the guy coming after him. Jain, it should be noted had near zero insurance background when he came to Berkshire in 1986.

[sleepydragon]

The Combs move could well be the long term transition plan for Jain. If Jain is irreplaceable as Buffett often has said, they need a long term development plan for the guy coming after him. Jain, it should be noted had near zero insurance background when he came to Berkshire in 1986.

 

Also good for Combs to gain experiences in operating businesses, which WEB has mentioned before.

 

[Jurgis]

Some fun Buffett MSFT tidbits on John Huber website: http://sabercapitalmgt.com/warren-buffett-1997-email-exchange-on-microsoft/

 

(John has an account on CoBF but posts very rarely.)

[Dynamic]

https://acquirersmultiple.com/2018/03/todd-combs-the-billionaire-whisperer/

 

The above article from early 2018 is worth reading again in light of Todd Combs being hired as GEICO CEO.

 

I get the strong impression he thinks very seriously about downside risk, as I mentioned earlier. Despite having a financial focused fund prior to joining Berkshire, it fell less than 6% in 2008 compared to 37% for the S&P500 index, which included much more than banks.

 

An excerpt:

Castle Point’s mandate was to invest in financial-services stocks. His company had done well but not exceptionally so. It was also relatively small, overseeing about $400 million. Combs’s big accomplishment was navigating the 2008 financial crisis relatively unscathed. His fund ended down 5.7 percent that year, while the S&P 500 plunged 37 percent, according to a letter to investors.

 

In 2010, Combs asked Buffett’s longtime business partner, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger, for a meeting. Soon after, the two met for lunch at the California Club in Los Angeles and ended up having a conversation that stretched for hours, according to an article at the time in the Wall Street Journal. Afterward, Munger suggested to Buffett that he meet the young money manager. Beyond his apparent smarts, Combs had the sort of personality that was a “100 percent fit” for Berkshire’s culture, Buffett told the newspaper. Mark Nelson, chairman of investment manager Caledonia in Sydney, who had encouraged Combs to reach out to Munger, says he was surprised by how quickly Berkshire acted. Combs enjoys digging into complex financial companies and tearing apart the accounting, Nelson says. “They probably saw a kindred spirit.”

[ValueMaven]

Say what you want about WEB - but he nailed Apple.  One of his best investments!

[longterminvestor]

The beauty of him "nailing Apple" is more than just the increase in dollars.  Its the fact that after years and years of saying he doesn't understand tech, that he actually spent the time to learn it and find an opportunity to allocate capital to the new found knowledge.  He failed with IBM, and instead of never going back, he found a new opportunity with Apple.  An amazing achievement and its still early innings with Apple which is great to see.

 

On that thought I was disappointed to see them sell 1MM Shares but that probably had to do with Ted/Todd having to sell for something they liked better.  To have the discipline not mettle shows the discipline.  If asked, Warren probably wanted to say, yeah, just allocated those APPL shares to me and I will give you fresh capital.  They didnt do that - others might have.  Just amazing to watch. 

[fareastwarriors]

Warren Buffett reportedly passed on buying Tiffany despite Berkshire’s mountain of cash

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/02/warren-buffett-reportedly-passed-on-buying-tiffany-as-berkshire-sits-on-a-mountain-of-cash.html

 

[rogermunibond]

Man sticks to his investing principles, no story here.  Move along, move along.

[SwedishValue]

I think it is interesting that he commented on the transaction when asked by CNBC. My interpretation is that he wants Berkshire shareholders and also fellow businessmen to know he is hunting actively.

[good-investing]

Hello,

 

I had the nice opportunity to film a lecture by Greggory Warren from Morningstar. He has been analyzing Berkshire for a long time and is also part of the panel of questioners at the Annual Meeting. That's why he knows how to ask Warren Buffett good questions and tells some of the behind-the-scenes stories about Warren and Charlie.

 

Here you can find the video:

[Munger_Disciple]

Thanks ebdem! I especially enjoyed the Q&A.

[good-investing]

Yes. The points there were very interesting. I will have also an interview with him, where he will give more insights :).

[SwedishValue]

Thanks for sharing! Very worthwhile watch and some new insights for me. When is it recorded?

 

I found his comments on the 10BN net purchasing activity in q3 to be strange, he should know that the 13-f is out and he should also know that the net purchasing activity was the Occidental deal.

[good-investing]

05. November 2019 at the International Value Investing Conference

[SwedishValue]

Thank you!

 

In that case I understand the confusion. I was confused myself for some time before reading in the report that the net investments under the three reported categories included the Occidental money.