Buffett discusses Berkshire's cash ambition, its reinsurance business, and his succession plan.

Becky Berkman

2018-02-23 09:35:00 Fri ET

Warren Buffett releases his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders as of February 2018. Buffett discusses Berkshire's core cash ambition, its reinsurance business, the recent increase in corporate net worth, and his succession plan. First, Buffett highlights the importance of *float* for insurance companies like Berkshire Hathaway, i.e. the company collects insurance premiums that have not been paid out as claims. Buffett and Munger can invest the float as these premiums absorb losses gradually throughout the life of each insurance policy. As this reinsurance counterbalances long-tail losses, Berkshire grows its float to extraordinary levels over time.

Second, corporate cash stockpiles surge to $116 billion, so Buffett prefers to keep this cash position for near-term mergers and acquisitions (instead of dividends and share repurchases). However, Buffett considers most recent takeover targets with no sensible purchase prices at the current stage of the real business cycle. Also, Buffett emphasizes the fact that debt-free investors can better take advantage of short-term stock market crashes such as Black Monday in 1987, the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and the global economic recession in 2008.

Berkshire experiences a one-time hefty increase in net worth by $65 billion or 23% due to the Trump tax cuts. The tax credits not only strengthen Berkshire's current fortress balance sheet, but also allow Buffett and Munger to cast a broader net of potential M&A deals.

Third, Buffett declares that Berkshire's next CEO will oversee company operations while the other half of this job will be given to stock-pickers who specialize in asset management. On the latter investment front, the likely successors are Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. The high-skill money managers both have successfully grown their assets under management (AUM) to $25 billion in early-2018.

Under this succession plan, Combs and Weschler will continue to implement the value investment philosophy in the post-Buffett reinsurance business structure.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Jacob Miramar

2018-01-12 07:37:00 Friday ET

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. These key tech titans often receive plaudits for mak

+See More

British Prime Minister Theresa May faces her landslide defeat in the parliamentary vote 432-to-202 against her Brexit deal.

Charlene Vos

2019-01-27 12:39:00 Sunday ET

British Prime Minister Theresa May faces her landslide defeat in the parliamentary vote 432-to-202 against her Brexit deal.

British Prime Minister Theresa May faces her landslide defeat in the parliamentary vote 432-to-202 against her Brexit deal. British Parliament rejects the M

+See More

The SEC sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a private company.

Amy Hamilton

2018-09-29 12:39:00 Saturday ET

The SEC sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a private company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a privat

+See More

Foreign majority owners offer Sprint and T-Mobile to stop using HuaWei critical technologies after the U.S. telecom merger.

Daphne Basel

2018-12-20 13:40:00 Thursday ET

Foreign majority owners offer Sprint and T-Mobile to stop using HuaWei critical technologies after the U.S. telecom merger.

T-Mobile and Sprint indicate that the U.S. is likely to approve their merger plan as they take the offer from foreign owners to stop using HuaWei telecom te

+See More

Tech unicorns blitzscale business niches for better scale economies from Uber and Lyft to Pinterest, Slack, and Zoom.

Dan Rochefort

2019-05-03 11:29:00 Friday ET

Tech unicorns blitzscale business niches for better scale economies from Uber and Lyft to Pinterest, Slack, and Zoom.

Key tech unicorns blitzscale business niches for better scale economies from Uber and Lyft to Pinterest, Slack, and Zoom. LinkedIn cofounder and serial entr

+See More

A brief biography of Andy Yeh

Andy Yeh Alpha

2020-11-22 11:30:00 Sunday ET

A brief biography of Andy Yeh

A brief biography of Andy Yeh Andy Yeh is responsible for ensuring maximum sustainable member growth within the Andy Yeh Alpha (AYA) fintech network pla

+See More