Categories
Charlie Munger Insurance

Charlie Munger Cools on Reinsurance Business

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Charlie Munger is less than excited about the reinsurance business these days, as Berkshire Hathaway’s reinsurance business, Gen Re, suffered an aggregate pretax underwriting losses of $14 million in the first quarter of 2015. The loss compares to a $101 million gain during the first quarter of 2014.

The company’s combined ratio deteriorated to 103.0% from 94.6%, and the total underwriting losses included $9 million in workers’ compensation.

Gen Re has $14 billion in capital and $6 billion in premiums.

More Competition Brings Lower Returns

The losses reflect increased competition for reinsurance underwriting.

“It’s a business whose prospects have turned for the worse and there’s not much we can do about it,” Warren Buffett said at the 2015 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

“The reinsurance business not as good as it once was and is unlikely to get better,” Charlie Munger noted. “Money has come in, not because they want to be in reinsurance, but because it’s an uncorrelated asset class. We’re in it for the long haul.”

Uncorrelated (also called non-correlated) asset classes are assets that move in the opposite direction of a particular asset class, thus helping investors reduce risk in exchange for lower upside performance.

Munger’s words were in line with those of Ajit Jain, who is the head of Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance. “What was a very lucrative business is no longer a very lucrative business going forward” Jain was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

Meyer Shields, managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., is also pessimistic about Gen Re’s near-term prospects.

“We expect Gen Re and (Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group’s) premium volumes and margins to generally decline in the remainder of 2015 and beyond, reflecting enduring reinsurance price competition and some fallout from Berkshire’s increasing pursuit of primary premium volumes at the likely expense of some former cedents.”

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Warren Buffett

China’s Stock Market Retreat Proves Buffett Right

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China’s stock market has rocketed upward in 2015, with China’s domestic equity markets having more than doubled, but its recent 20-percent retreat brings to mind Warren Buffett’s recent words on whether traditional value investing has a place in such a market.

“Investment principles do not stop at borders, Buffet noted at the 2015 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. “I would apply the principles of the Intelligent Investor—stocks as prices of a business—in evaluating businesses overseas.”

With China’s high-flying stock market increasingly built on borrowed money, with margin debt at a record 8% of the stock market’s free float, Chinese investors may be wise to heed another one of Buffett’s famed aphorisms.

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Berkshire Hathaway Energy

The Energy Cloud and Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s Future

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Will Berkshire Hathaway Energy be left out in the cold due to disruptive changes in the energy market?

It’s a question that BHE and other utilities are starting to both ask and answer, and is particularly relevant to BHE, which has become in less than a decade one of the major players in solar and wind power generation.

With rooftop solar power changing the relationship between consumers and traditional energy producers and distributors, electric utilities are starting to think seriously about the changing landscape that the energy industry will encounter over the next few decades.

The Energy Cloud

The industry has started to refer to this changing marketplace as the “Energy Cloud,” mirroring the cloud computing world, and emphasizing the dynamic nature of the relationship between all parties.

A white paper by market research and consulting team Navigant Research called the Energy Cloud “…a concept that borrows from cloud computing, represents a range of technical, commercial, environmental, and regulatory changes that challenge the traditional hub-and-spoke grid architecture.”

An anticipated transformation in the energy grid that decentralizes many pieces of the energy production has utilities looking at additional revenue sources from unregulated business units. For example, Georgia Power rather than fighting rooftop solar companies is joining them in the installation business through a new subsidiary.

Unregulated Businesses

Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway Energy continues to aggressively expand its unregulated businesses, which includes its energy service solutions company Intelligent Energy Systems, and residential real estate sales company Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. It also owns 225 million shares (10%) of Chinese battery and automaker BYD Company Limited.

In the end, it’s all about transformation in an industry that traditionally talked to customers more than listened to them.

Navigant notes that “the end result of this transformation is a reimagining of how we generate, store, and consume energy in the next 20 years.”

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Insurance National indemnity

Berkshire’s Commercial Insurance Arm Grabs Market Share

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Berkshire Hathaway’s continued push into commercial insurance lines in the U. S. market is grabbing market share from smaller insurers.

According to a new report by Fitch Ratings, Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies (BHHC) was the 10th largest U.S. commercial lines insurer in 2014 based on direct premium volume, with direct premium reaching $5.6 billion through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.

From Regional to National

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, BHHC was originally incorporated in 1970 as Cornhusker Casualty. In 1981, the company added the Insurance Company of Iowa–an affiliated Iowa-domiciled insurance company. Through further acquisitions it grew into eight separately managed regional insurance companies located across the United States, each with its own local underwriting and management presence in its respective territories–a core value BHHC continues to embody. In the late 1990s, as it gained a national presence, the remaining six companies began operating under the shared brand identity of Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies.

Fitch notes that Workers compensation insurance has been a big part of Berkshire’s growth in this area, with the company becoming the seventh largest U.S. writer in 2014.

An Impact on Smaller Insurers

Fitch also reported that Berkshire’s growth could impact smaller insurers.

“Diverse commercial business segments and substantial capital resources position BRK for further market share growth that could marginalize smaller commercial lines underwriters that have less favorable market position.”

Consistently Outperforming the Industry

Berkshire’s track record in commercial lines underwriting has been very positive, and Fitch took note of that fact.

“BRK’s commercial lines’ underwriting results have consistently outperformed the property/casualty industry and most peers and loss reserve experience is historically favorable. Maintaining underwriting profitability with a greatly expanded premium base in a competitive market environment may provide future challenges.”

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Insurance Special Report

Special Report: Is the Driverless Car a Threat to Auto Insurers?

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“Self-driving cars are a real threat to auto insurance business,” Warren Buffett said at the 2014 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. It was a comment that didn’t get a lot of attention at the time, but suddenly now everyone seems to be talking about self-driving cars and driverless cars.

With Google testing self-driving cars on public roads, some have touted this as a bellwether for a quickly approaching age of automation that has the driver taking the back seat.

Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Tesla are just some of the companies that are moving ever closer to self-driving cars with a host of collision avoidance features that respond quicker and more precisely than a human operator can.

As for actually being self-driving, Mercedes-Benz wowed consumers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past January with its self-driving car prototype, the F 015. Mercedes even created a video of its Blade Runner-esque vehicle driving itself to the trade show.

So, if this world is approaching, what does it mean for Berkshire Hathaway’s GEICO, or other auto insurers? Are they really dinosaurs unaware that a mega-asteroid is approaching to wipe them out?

Not So Fast

Bryan Reimer, a research scientist in the MIT AgeLab and the Associate Director of The New England University Transportation Center, doesn’t think the driver is headed for extinction just yet, or even in the near future.

“These technologies show a lot of promise, however, you are not going to get into a black box and say ‘take me somewhere’ at the consumer level,” notes Professor Reimer. “New technologies will reduce fatalities and accidents, but it won’t eliminate them.”

There’s Still a Need for the Human Operator

“Higher levels of automation in the vehicle will still have humans in a supervisory role,” Reimer adds, noting that the sophisticated auto-pilot in planes still has human operators even with planes separated by thousands of feet of airspace. “The more automation, the more skill and training you need,” professor Reimer explains, pointing out the extensive training that pilots undergo. In the case of cars, “we have no equivalent educational structure in place.”

He also adds that with the close spacing of cars, which can be in fractions of a meter, and the variability of road conditions, it make roadways “a much more dynamic environment and harder to predict.” With the enormous number of cars on the road, often coming from different directions, it makes “the speed of decision-making much tougher.”

Accidents Happen

In addition, any self-driving technology will have to coexist with human drivers for a long time to come. “If everything was automated, it would be much easier,” Reimer adds, noting that we have a tendency to both “over-trust and under-trust technology.”

Google has conceded that during its test phase it has had 14 accidents over a span of six years and 1.9 million miles, but that enviable record didn’t come in the real world conditions of New York City rush hour traffic.

As self-driving cars move into the unpredictable world of everyday traffic, accidents happen. One of those accidents happened on July 1, 2015, when one of Google’s Lexus SUV prototypes was rear-ended in Mountain View, California. The crash sent three Google employees to the hospital with symptoms of whiplash.

Eleven of the fourteen accidents Google has had were rear-end collisions brought about by non-self-driving cars, highlighting the same potential danger for self-driving and non-self-driving vehicles.

A Wide Variety of Insurable Risks

Self-driving cars won’t mean the elimination of hazards. For example, there were 250,000 flood damaged cars from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and in 2013 there were 699,594 cars reported stolen. Add to the mix everything from trees falling on cars, to vandalism, and there are not going to be many people that want to drive their new car without fire, theft and collision insurance. There certainly will be changes in insurance needs, as changes in the ownership structures mean more car-sharing and ride-sharing scenarios. The popularity of Uber and Lyft has already seen GEICO respond with ride-sharing insurance, which launched this past February, and you can expect more policy innovations as insurers meet new consumer demands.

A Safer World that Still Needs Insurance

We live in a lot safer world than we did a hundred years ago. Commercial buildings have automated sprinkler systems and fire alarms, and homes have smoke detectors and burglar alarms, yet they both still have fires and break-ins, and they still need insurance.

It’s likely that cars and trucks will too.

(This article has been updated since it was published.)

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Richline Group

Berkshire and Wearable Tech, Really? Really!

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Those who think of Warren Buffett as a technophobic investor who has no interest in technology companies, are overlooking the fact that Berkshire Hathaway has its hands in many technology companies. Berkshire is a minority owner of IBM and BYD Co., and its own wholly-owned companies often have areas of leading-edge tech if you look for it. One of those companies is the Richline Group, one of Berkshire’s lesser-known group of companies.

What is the Richline Group?

The Richline Group, Inc., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that was formed in 2007, and is both a fine jewelry manufacturer and marketer. The four independent strategic business units in Richline’s portfolio are LeachGarner, Inverness, Rio Grande and Richline Brands.

Embracing Wearable Tech

Early in 2015, Richline signed distribution deals with Omate and Cuff, and Richline will also introduce new products featuring differentiated technology from companies including Say and MightyCast.

Richline is debuting two tiers of product offerings: fine jewelry, which primarily consists of designs made with precious metals, and fashion jewelry, which offers more affordable designs made with bronze and base metals. In addition to fitness tracking, many of Richline’s proprietary designs will offer features centered on personalization, notifications and discrete personal security. Designs look to bring a combination of style and tech to an entirely untapped audience of fashion-forward fine jewelry shoppers.

“We are extremely proud of our initial offering of smart jewelry,” said Ramona Genao-Archibald, Richline Brands’ EVP of Merchandising, “and we feel like we are just getting started. We have an amazing team here at Richline that is dedicated to finding the best emerging technologies and finding new ways to make them look better than ever before.”

In addition to its proprietary innovations, Richline is introducing an assortment of “compatibles” which will offer millions of women stylish and luxury alternatives for use with existing wearable products such as Fitbit and Jawbone.

“Understanding the impact that the emerging wearables space will have on the jewelry industry has been a core focus for Richline over the past two years,” said Richline CEO Dennis Ulrich. “A lot of hard work and collaboration has gone into this project, and we are thrilled to finally be able to show the industry our vision for the future of fine jewelry wearables.”

Promoting Wearable Tech

In addition to its product offerings, Richline is promoting wearable tech through the creation of the WearableStyleNews website. The site is dedicated to sharing the latest in the rapidly-emerging world of luxury wearables. It features a wide-range of news from the mundane to the oddball, including a 3-D printed Bitcoin ring with a QR code in lieu of a stone setting, and L’Oreal’s partnership with Bay Area startup Organovo to achieve 3D printing of human skin for makeup testing.

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Commentary Special Report Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway’s Biggest Question

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Who will succeed Warren Buffett, who turns 85 in August, as the head of Berkshire Hathaway? This would seem to be the biggest question hanging over the shareholders of the massive conglomerate. Will it be Greg Abel, the head of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, or Ajit Jain, who heads up Berkshire’s reinsurance business? Both are frontrunners, especially since Vice-chairman Charlie Munger, who is himself 91 this year, specifically dropped their names in his shareholder letter included in the 2014 Berkshire Hathaway annual report. Yet while people speculate on Buffett’s successor, I would suggest there’s a far more important question. After all, CEOs come and go, and whoever follows Buffett and Munger will eventually be succeeded by others.

So, the biggest question is not who will succeed Buffett; it’s how will they be compensated. In other words, how will they participate in the growth of the company as compared to how has Buffett participated?

Can a unique situation be replicated?

Berkshire Hathaway may be unique in the sheer number of companies that operate under its umbrella. It’s not only a conglomerate; it’s a conglomerate of conglomerates. For example, Berkshire’s Marmon Group has 160 independent manufacturing and service businesses, and Berkshire’s Scott Fetzer Group oversees 21 diverse companies. But even this is not what is most unique about Berkshire. What’s most unique is that Warren Buffett is participating first and foremost just as you do, as a shareholder.

The most underpaid CEO in the Fortune 500

For a man overseeing a conglomerate with a market value of roughly $347 billion, you would think that Buffett receives sky high compensation, especially since that conglomerate’s share value has risen 1,826,163% (yes, that’s not a misprint) from 1966 to 2014. However, Buffett (and Charlie Munger) have annual salaries of only $100,000. What’s more, there are no stock options and no bonuses. Buffett and Munger’s rock bottom salaries mean that they are participating in Berkshire just like you are, as long-term shareholders that care more about increasing the underlying intrinsic value of the company than any short-term trick to boost the stock price.

Think that doesn’t matter?

“The more CEOs are paid, the worse the firm does over the next three years, as far as stock performance and even accounting performance,” notes Michael Cooper of the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business. Prof. Cooper co-authored a paper that proved just that.

Just look at David Zaslav, CEO of pay-TV channel Discovery Communications. Zaslav had a total compensation package of $156.1 million in 2014, yet the same year the stock lost a quarter of its value, even as the broader market boomed. The shareholders felt the pain, while Zaslav got the gain. That’s not exactly participating on the same basis.

At the 2015 Berkshire annual meeting, Buffett acknowledged that when CEO incentives get out of line with a company’s goals bad things can happen.

“Charlie and I believe in incentives, Buffett said. “But we have seen decent people get into trouble with incentives. The CEO promises a certain number, and his executives don’t want to make the CEO look bad. Egos get involved. You have to be careful in the messages you send as CEO. If you don’t want to disappoint Wall Street, your managers will react.”

A Hedge without the 2 and 20

Hedge fund managers built their fortunes on the 2% annual management fee and a 20% of the profits, but that’s not necessarily the same for the hedge fund’s investors, who don’t get that management fee to cushion any tumble in profits. Remember in 2008 when Buffett bet hedge fund manager Ted Seides that a low-priced index fund tracking the S&P 500 would beat the average of any 5 hedge funds over a 10-year period that Seides picked? Well, the “Million-Dollar Bet” is looking more and more like a sure bet for Buffett, because he knew the high friction costs would hurt the hedge funds’ returns.

In fact, Berkshire’s a conglomerate that operates as hedge fund without the management fee structure. Like a hedge fund, it can buy 100% of a company (unlike a mutual fund), it uses derivatives to increase its leverage and hedge its risk, and because its leadership is in lock step with its investors, all that benefit goes right to each shareholder.

Whose side will they be on?

In 2011, David Sokol, who once looked like the heir apparent to Buffett, abruptly resigned after it turned out that he had accumulated over 96,000 shares of Lubrizol before bringing the company to Buffett’s attention as a potential acquisition. Buffett later called Sokol’s actions “inexplicable” and “inexcusable,” and while the SEC dropped its probe, the Sokol fiasco showed that’s it’s not automatic that Berkshire’s leadership will align with its shareholders interests.

Or, as Charlie Munger has said, “Trustworthiness is more important than brains.”

Berkshire’s Future Leadership

Berkshire’s future generations of leadership may be great stock pickers, able to build portfolios that equal the $100 billion portfolio that Buffett built. They may be great capital allocators like Buffett, able to use the profits from one company to by other companies with even greater growth potential. They might even be as savvy opportunists, unleashing Berkshire’s mountains of cash just when others credit has dried up. However, the big question is whether they do it on the same basis as Buffett and Munger, on behalf of all the shareholders.

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Acquisitions Kraft Heinz

Berkshire Hathaway Becomes Majority Shareholder in Heinz

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On Wednesday, June 17, Berkshire Hathaway exercised warrants it owned to purchase about 46.2 million Heinz shares. The purchase, which cost Berkshire only $462,000, makes Berkshire the majority shareholder with ownership of 52.5 percent of H.J. Heinz.

Berkshire’s ownership stake will be diluted once the merger of Kraft and Heinz goes through, however, Berkshire will still be the largest shareholder in the combined company.

The other major shareholder will be Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital.

Kraft Heinz will be 51 percent owned by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway. Kraft shareholders will own the remaining 49 percent. On June 9, a waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“HSR Act”), as amended, expired with regard to the proposed merger.

The expiration of the HSR Act waiting period satisfies one of the conditions to the closing of the proposed transaction, which remains subject to approval by Kraft shareholders, antitrust clearance in Canada and other customary closing conditions.

Heinz also received notice that the Canadian Competition Bureau has issued a “no action” letter indicating that the Bureau does not intend to challenge the companies’ proposed merger.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2015.

Powerful Brands

The combined company will have a portfolio of packaged food brands that includes Heinz ketchup, Philadelphia cream cheese, and Oscar Mayer meats.

Kraft has $18 billion in annual sales, employs 22,500 workers, and boasts that 98 percent of U.S. and Canadian households have Kraft products in their kitchens. Nine of Kraft’s brands have more than $500 million in annual sales, and 80 percent of sales are in categories where they hold the #1 or #2 market position.

Kraft Heinz will have $28 billion in sales with eight $1+ billion brands and five brands between $500 million-$1 billion.

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Berkadia

Berkadia Arranges for $648.2 Million in Financing for Senior Housing Portfolio

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Berkadia has provided loan financing through its Fannie Mae Program for $648.2 million in financing for the acquisition of 32 senior housing properties spanning 12 states, including California, Missouri, Texas and Washington.

The borrower will use the financing for the acquisition of the portfolio, which sold for $875 million. The 10-year, fixed-rate loan features a 4.17 percent interest rate, 73.5 percent loan-to-value ratio and a 30-year amortization schedule. The individual loans were crossed collateralized and crossed defaulted.

The financing came through Berkadia’s Seniors Housing and Healthcare group, and Managing Director Christopher Fenton and Senior Director Jay Healy of Berkadia’s Seniors Housing and Healthcare group worked with NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. to secure the financing.

“Our team’s extensive underwriting experience in the seniors housing sector enabled us to secure attractive loan terms for this sizable portfolio in only 45 days from when the application was signed,” said Fenton. “This experience, coupled with our deep market insight and excellent client service, allowed us to effectively and efficiently manage this portfolio’s impressive scale and geographic scope.”

About Berkadia

Founded in 2009 as a 50/50 joint venture between Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia National Corporation, Berkadia is a third-party commercial mortgage servicer, as well as an approved lender for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD/FHA. The company was among the top Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae multifamily lenders for 2013.

Berkadia owes its origins to GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation, which was acquired in 2009 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Five Mile Capital Partners LLC, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. Christened Capmark Financial, the company had $10 billion of originations in 2008 and a servicing portfolio of more than $360 billion before running into bankruptcy in October 2009.

In a deal approved by the bankruptcy court, Capmark sold its mortgage loan and servicing to the newly formed Berkadia in a deal worth $515 million.

The deal brought Berkshire into the heart of the commercial loan serving business, and the company has one of the largest commercial real estate servicing portfolios.

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Categories
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Insurance

Berkshire Hathaway Increases Asia Presence with Minority Stake in IAG

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On the heels of Berkshire Hathaway’s recent move into the Australian insurance market, the company has announced that it has purchased a minority stake Australian insurer Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG).

Berkshire has agreed to pay A$500 million (US$387.8 million) for 3.7% of IAG.

In addition to the ownership stake, Berkshire will receive 20% of IAG’s premiums and in exchange will pay 20% of its claims over the next 10 years, a move that right off the bat will bring Berkshire $1.78 billion of premium annually.

“Our strategic partnership with IAG will help fast-track our entry into this region,” Warren Buffett said. “We have worked with IAG for more than 15 years and over that time we’ve developed a good understanding and respect for their people.”

IAG is the parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam. The company employs more than 15,000 people.

IAG’s brands include NRMA Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC, Swann, WFI and Lumley Insurance (Australia); NZI, State, AMI and Lumley Insurance (New Zealand); Safety and NZI (Thailand); and AAA Assurance (Vietnam). IAG also has interests in general insurance joint ventures in Malaysia, India and China.

Standard & Poor’s has assigned a ‘Very Strong’ Insurer Financial Strength Rating of ‘AA-’ to IAG’s core operating subsidiaries.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company (BHSI) recently received its insurance license to provide all lines of General Business in Australia, and established operations in Sydney. Chris Colahan was named President of BHSI’s Australasia Region, and four executives from American International Group are also on board.

Non-Dilution Rights

Under a waiver granted by the Australian Securities Exchange, IAG has agreed to give non-dilution rights to Berkshire, granting the company the right to buy shares at the same price as other investors if there is an issuance of securities.

(This article has been updated with new information since it was published.)

© 2015 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.