Category: Minority Stock Positions

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Minority Stock Positions

BYD’s 300 Electric Buses Just the Start for Chinese City of Shanwei

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

With air pollution in China making headlines almost daily, BYD Co. Ltd., the Chinese battery and vehicle-maker that is 9% owned by Berkshire Hathaway, is providing 300 pure electric buses to the Chinese city of Shanwei, in Guangdong Province. The electric buses are the first of what could be thousands for the city in the next three years.

BYD will be gradually adding the buses to the city’s public transportation fleet as the city sets ambitious goals for electric bus transportation for the city’s 409,000 population.

According to BYD, the city is purchasing the BYD K7, an 8-meter, 23-seat pure electric bus running on BYD’s proprietary Iron-Phosphate batteries, which give it a driving range of up to 240km on a single charge.

The battery packs are placed on the roof and floor, making it quite spacious inside. It also features in-wheel motors, which saves a lot in terms of maintenance costs, as well as one-button-start system and continuously variable transmission. The company touts the model as ideal for urban transit or as an airport shuttle.

Not Hundreds of Buses, Thousands

The city of Shanwei plans to have 1,810 pure electric buses in service by the end of 2017. Additionally, 1,200 units of 6-to-8-meter new energy buses will be used as short-distance transit buses in urban areas and shuttle buses in suburban areas between 2017 and 2019.

By 2019, the city of Shanwei will have a total of 3,010 pure electric buses in operation. It is the first city in China to make large-scale use of the BYD K7.

Berkshire and BYD

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential and purchased 225 million shares, and today owns roughly 9.1% of the company.

At the time, Warren Buffett said: “”We are thrilled to be partners with BYD and the people of China. Mr. Wang Chuanfu has an extraordinary managerial record, and we welcome the opportunity to work with him.”

The move has certainly worked out well for Berkshire, as BYD’s electric buses have been hot sellers not only in China, but around the world.

In September 2015, BYD scored a massive order in the U. S. from the state of Washington. BYD won a contract from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for up to 800 pure electric buses.

BYD’s electric car business is booming as well, and it is now the number one seller of electric cars worldwide.

Berkshire’s stake in BYD is worth roughly $1.77 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2016 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.

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Minority Stock Positions

Berkshire Increases Stake in Phillips 66

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway is using the weakness in the energy market to increase its stake in refiner Phillips 66 (PSX), which has been mostly immune to the downward pressure on oil prices, as the demand for refined products, including gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel remains strong.

Berkshire picked up 35,781 shares of Phillips 66 stock on Monday, January 4, 2016, in three transactions. Berkshire bought 612,095 shares at $78.1247 per share, 126,390 shares at $79.1632 per share, and 20,810 shares at $79.6654 per share.

In August, Berkshire revealed that it owned more than ten-percent of Phillips 66, and the new purchases brings its stake to 62,294,493 shares, which is roughly 12-percent.

About Phillips 66

Phillips 66 was spun-off of ConocoPhillips in May 2012, and in addition to its refining and petrochemical business, the company also transports crude oil, refined products, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL). It gathers, processes and markets natural gas and NGL to power businesses, heat homes and provide feedstock to the petrochemical industry.

The company’s 52-week share price high was $94.12, and it currently pays an annual dividend of 56 cents, yielding 2.98%.

© 2016 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.

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Acquisitions Berkshire Hathaway Automotive Berkshire Hathaway Energy Duracell Minority Stock Positions NetJets Precision Castparts Warren Buffett

Commentary: A Christmas Wish List for Under Warren Buffett’s Tree

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Here’s a Christmas wish list for presents under Warren Buffett’s tree. The items are big, so we’ll fit them under Charlie Munger’s tree as well.

1. Precision Castparts: There’s nothing like getting the present you bought for yourself. The pending acquisition the aerospace manufacturer looks like the gift that will keep on giving.  Demand for new airplanes will double over the next 15 years, as aging fleets are retired and millions more people start to fly regularly in India and China.

2. Duracell: Because everyone likes to get cash for Christmas! With the Duracell acquisition set to close in February 2016, Berkshire will gain not only the leading alkaline battery manufacturer, but will also get a company recapitalized by P&G with $1.7 billion in cash, and will get huge tax savings as it trades in its appreciated P&G stock for the battery maker.

3. More German Companies: Warren Buffett’s admiration for the German economy was on full display at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in May 2015. This past February, Berkshire Hathaway struck a deal to acquire Devlet Louis Motorradvertriebs, a mail-order and retail chain selling motorbike clothing and accessories. The move, according to Buffett, was just the first small acquisition in a country with a strong economy and work ethic. And, with a rising dollar and a shaky euro, will more German companies fit under Berkshire’s tree?

4. Lots of Natural Gas: As the world dumps coal and moves to cheaper and cleaner forms of energy, Berkshire’s on the verge of striking it rich in Australia’s gas fields. Natural gas prices may be cratering now, but it never hurts to have a majority share of four trillion cubic feet of gas-in-place (yes, trillion) in Australia’s Whicher Range and Wonnerup gas fields. A new test well hopefully will bring good news in the new year.

5. More Auto Dealers: When Berkshire Hathaway jumped into the auto retailing business in March 2015, with its acquisition of the Van Tuyl Group, it added a whole new line of business to the mega-conglomerate. The Van Tuyl Group was the largest privately owned auto dealership group in the U.S., and Buffett promised that this was just the start of building a major auto-retailing empire. So, will Herb Chambers Companies, a privately-held, Boston-based dealership group with 55 total dealerships, be the perfect fit for Berkshire Hathaway Automotive? Its owner looks ready to sell. Time to wrap this one up and put a bow on it.

6. Happy Pilots at NetJets: Forget your crazy uncle, there’s nothing like having a happy family at Christmas. This holiday, NetJets’ pilots and its flight attendants will be celebrating their new contracts that bring substantial raises. Hopefully, they’ll use it to buy some of Berkshire’s fine products. How about some jewelry from Borsheims? It’s been a good year. Go for it!

7. More Solar & Wind! Berkshire’s quickly becoming the leading energy producer and distributor of solar and wind energy. This year saw major wind farm projects, including a new wind farm site in Adams County, Iowa, which will produce 162 megawatts of additional wind generation capacity in Iowa. Berkshire’s aggressive expansion of it solar power farms saw its Topaz Solar Farm in San Luis Obispo County, California, become one of the largest photovoltaic solar farms in the world. And, there’s plenty of room under the tree for more such projects, which not only bring cheap energy, but also lower environmental costs as they are emissions free. With the cost of solar energy dropping fast, Berkshire’s been signing amazing deals that are a Christmas present now and for decades to come. In Nevada, it has contracted to buy electricity from First Solar’s soon to be built Playa Solar 2 at the astoundingly low rate of only 3.87 cents a kilowatt-hour, and the deal is a fixed rate contract for twenty years.

8. More Deals with 3G Capital: Because everyone likes surprises. 3G’s aggressive acquisition strategy has been the perfect partner for Berkshire’s cash. 3G brings not only the aggressive cost-cutting (aggressive is an understatement) that is bringing legacy companies such as Kraft-Heinz into the 21st century, but also gives excellent financing and equity opportunities. 3G’s merger of Burger King with Tim Hortons brought Berkshire fat interest payments and made Berkshire a minority owner of the newly formed Restaurant Brands International. Surely, there are more deals to be done.

Hard to fit this all under the Christmas tree? Berkshire’s a big company. There’s room for all this and more.

Merry Christmas everybody!

–David Mazor

© 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.

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Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group Charlie Munger Insurance Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

Berkshire Cuts Munich Re Stake, Again

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway continues to see the reinsurance business as a low return business and is pulling back from the sector in its own underwriting and in its ownership stake in other underwriters.

Berkshire has again cut its stake in Munich, Germany-based reinsurer Munich Re, this time from 9.7 percent to 4.6 percent. It previously cut its stake from 12 percent to just over 9 percent earlier in 2015.

Berkshire’s own reinsurance business has been less than stellar this year with Berkshire reporting$155 million in losses from storm damage on Australia’s east coast in the 2nd quarter of 2015.

Charlie Says

“The reinsurance business not as good as it once was and is unlikely to get better,” Charlie Munger said at the 2015 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. “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 echoed by 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 quoted in The Wall Street Journal.

© 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.

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Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Moves into First Place in Worldwide EV Sales

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

The headlights flashing to pass you on the autobahn just might be coming from an EV built by BYD Company Ltd.

Chinese auto and battery-maker BYD Company Ltd has zoomed into the number one position as the world’s top selling EV manufacturer.

Nissan, Mitsubishi, Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW rounded out the top five, in that order.

BYD Co Ltd, which Berkshire Hathaway holds a minority stake in of nearly 10%, sold 6,099 pure electric cars in October 2015, which was almost double the 3,115 sold by second-place Nissan.

The Winner Month After Month

BYD’s first-place finish in October was the sixth consecutive month since May that it has led worldwide EV sales figures. The company has an eleven-percent market share of the total EV market.

BYD’s success is due to the popularity of its Qin sedan and Tang SUV. The company will introduce two new models, the SUVs Song and Yuan, in 2016.

BYD’s rise to the top is dramatic, as it was only ranked seventh in 2014, and it’s sure to continue to grow, as the company has yet to retail its EV cars in the United States.

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential and purchased 225 million shares, and today owns roughly 10% of the company.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 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.

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Minority Stock Positions

BYD Number One in Electric Vehicles in August

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

While everyone watches Tesla and Nissan to get the pulse of EV car sales, Chinese car-maker BYD is quietly topping their world-wide sales figures month after month.

BYD Co Ltd, which Berkshire Hathaway holds a minority stake in of nearly 10%, sold 5,307 pure electric cars in August 2015. The sales substantially topped both Tesla and Nissan, which had sales of 2,805 and 3,405 respectively.

The August win meant that the company beat Tesla’s and Nissan’s sales figures for the top EV manufacturer for the fourth month in a row.

For the year to date, BYD is in second place behind Nissan and ahead of Tesla.

Multiple Models

BYD’s Qin and Tang models make the company the only automaker to have two models in the top ten. The Qin ranks number one and the Tang is number eight, and  BYD will be adding two SUV models, the Song and Yuan, to the product lineup as well.

BYD’s marketing strategy has seen it make inroads across the globe, and it currently has buses and taxis running in over 160 cities in 36 countries.

BYD, which is the world-leader in rechargeable batteries, has yet to enter the U.S. car market with either its all-electric or hybrid vehicles. In the U.S., the company has focused on the battery-powered zero emission bus market, winning contracts in San Diego and Long Beach, California, and in Colorado, Oregon and Washington. The company has built a factory to assemble the buses in Long Beach.

However, BYD is inching toward U.S. car sales. In the spring of 2015 it began a pilot program with Uber in Chicago that used BYDs E6 sedan. The car is a cross between a sedan and SUV, and currently gets roughly 186 miles (300 km) of driving range per charge. The 2016 E6 will reportedly get a range increase to 250 miles (400 km).

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 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.

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Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Solar Signs Major Deal for Middle-East Luxury Hotels

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD Co. Ltd., the Chinese battery and vehicle-maker that is 10% owned by Berkshire Hathaway, has signed a deal in Jordan to provide polycrystalline solar photovoltaic modules for the largest private photovoltaic project in the Middle-East country. The project will supply electricity to a number of luxury hotels.

Partnering with Phoenix Solar, BYD will build three power plants that will supply all the electricity needs of Arab International Hotels, plc (owner of Marriott Amman), Al Dawliyah Hotels & Malls, plc (owner of Sheraton Amman) and Business Tourism Company (owner of Marriott Dead Sea and Marriott Petra).

The goal of the solar project is to reduce to zero the carbon impact of power generation, eliminating 10.7 million kilograms of CO2 emissions per year that would ordinarily be produced through burning fossil fuels.

Phoenix Solar will handle the engineering, procurement and project management. The solar plants will be built in the Mwaqqar and Damikhi/Qatraneh areas, connecting to the electrical networks Jordan Electric Power Co, plc and Electric Distribution Company, plc.

“This project is a milestone in pursuing our ambitious environment targets of zero CO2 emissions,” said Bassam Maayeh, Managing Director of Arab International Hotels, and spokesman for the consortium of hotels involved.

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential and purchased 225 million shares, and today owns roughly 9.1% of the company.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 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.

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Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group Insurance Minority Stock Positions

Berkshire Slashes Stake in Munich Re

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

For the past four months, Berkshire Hathaway’s leadership has been expressing its displeasure with the state of the reinsurance market. Now, reinsurer Munich Re has reported that Berkshire has cut its stake in the company from roughly 12% down to 9%.

“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 added. “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.”

Buffett’s and 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 said in July in The Wall Street Journal.

Berkshire originally disclosed a stake in Munich Re in January 2010, when it reported a 3.045% stake in the German reinsurer.

© 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.

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Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

Sudan First African Country for BYD

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD Co. Ltd., the Chinese battery and vehicle-maker that is 10% owned by Berkshire Hathaway, has reached a deal to sell 10,000 vehicles to Sudan’s state-run company GIAD Motor Co Ltd.

The cars will include both hybrid and traditional gasoline-powered vehicles, and the deal represents the company’s first major order in Africa.

The vehicles’ power systems and key components will be built in China and the cars will be assembled in Sudan. BYD has assembly plants for gas-powered cars in Sudan and Egypt.

BYD’s Sudanese partner, Giad Motor Co. Ltd., is a subsidiary of Sudan’s Giad Group, the only corporation with a license to produce vehicles in the country, as well as its largest state-owned company.

BYD’s Sale on the Rise

Despite recent turmoil in the China’s stock markets, BYD has had a strong year for global sales.

BYD’s revenues are up 21% to 30.4 billion yuan ($4.75 billion) for the first six months of 2015. Gross profits were up 21.4% for the same period at 4.6 billion yuan with car sales up 14% to 210,000 units.

Berkshire and BYD

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential and purchased 225 million shares, and today owns roughly 9.1% of the company.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 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.

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Minority Stock Positions

Axalta to Build Global Innovation Center at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings, announced that it will build its new Global Innovation Center at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia.

The 175,000 square foot facility will house Axalta’s global research, product development, and technology initiatives and partner with the Company’s other technology centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

The approximately $70 million project is being developed by Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners, and Axalta has entered into a long-term lease agreement for the building.

Project construction is expected to be complete in late 2017.

Upon reaching full operation in 2018, Axalta will bring at least 190 new jobs to Philadelphia with the possibility of additional positions in the future.

Axalta’s global corporate headquarters is already located in Center City Philadelphia, and its North America headquarters is located in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania with a customer training center in Exton, Pennsylvania.

Berkshire and Axalta

In April 2015, Berkshire purchased from The Carlyle Group 20 million of Axalta’s common shares for an aggregate purchase price of $560 million, or $28.00 per share.

Originally a unit of Dupont, Axalta is a leading global coatings company “dedicated solely to the development, manufacture and sale of liquid and powder coatings.”

Could the company be a potential acquisition target for Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol Corporation? We will have to wait and see.

© 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.