Everything Warren Buffett: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

FINANCIAL TIMES: Key role for Buffett over utility’s fate

By Henny Sender in Hong Kong

Published: May 24 2011 22:37 | Last updated: May 24 2011 22:37

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is poised to play a key role in deciding the fate of Texas utility Energy Future Holdings, the former TXU, which was taken private four years ago in the biggest leveraged buy-out ever, people familiar with the company said.

Energy Future is seeking to refinance about $4.6bn in bonds used for the buy-out as it seeks to address financial difficulties created in recent years by sharp falls in the price of natural gas, which serves as a benchmark for utility rates in Texas.

Berkshire owns almost $2bn of the $4.6bn in buy-out bonds, the people familiar with the company said. Mr Buffett has a reputation for resisting exchange offers in which holders of debt agree to longer maturities and a reduction in the value of their holdings in return for more fees and higher interest payments.

The result is a high stakes negotiation that will pit Mr Buffett against some of the most powerful figures in private equity – David Bonderman of TPG, and Henry Kravis and his cousin George Roberts, one of the founders of KKR.

“If they can get him on side, it will be a huge help,” one investor in Energy Future debt said of Mr Buffett. “I would never bet against him.”

The buy-out bonds mature in 2015 and 2016. Their fate carries additional importance because of a previous restructuring of $16bn in the company’s bank debt. If the bonds are restructured, that bank debt would come due in 2017. If the bonds are not refinanced, the bank debt would have to be paid off before the bonds mature.

Berkshire wrote down the value of the Energy Future bond holdings by almost 50 per cent at the end of last year, according to people familiar with the matter, although the firm does not specifically name the Texas utility in its annual report.

KKR values the company’s equity at 20 cents on the dollar; TPG has said it is worth 30 cents. The equity only has value if debt holders are repaid in full. The debt totals $40bn.

Berkshire did not respond to a request for comment.

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BUSINESSWEEK: About 36,000 attended Berkshire Hathaway meeting

OMAHA, Neb.

May 27, 2011, 10:10AM ET

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. officials estimate 36,000 people attended this year's shareholder meeting where Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger spent nearly six hours answering questions.

That attendance estimate is down from the pre-meeting prediction of 40,000 and last year's 37,000 attendance, but it is difficult to develop a precise count for the Omaha event.

The attendance count is based partly on the number of requests for passes shareholders submit and partly on a rough count as they enter the arena's doors.

But no one collects tickets as people enter the meeting, and many people come and go during the daylong event. Plus, many shareholders request the passes just to obtain special discounts at Berkshire subsidiaries like the Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Spokeswoman Carrie Kizer says 36,000 is the company's best guess.

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Thursday, May 19, 2011

CNN MONEY: How Warren Buffett got a role in The Office finale

By Patricia Sellers May 19, 2011: 2:42 PM ET

Buffett will appear tonight on the one hour NBC season finale of The Office at 9/8c.

Tonight on the season finale of The Office, a galaxy of stars will be jostling to replace the hapless Michael Scott as boss of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch. You'll see Jim Carrey, Ray Romano, Ricky Gervais, and...Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett visits Dunder Mifflin

It's a quick cameo for the famous investor, but Buffett had a juicier role last month when he starred in a five-minute spoof of The Office, which was viewed by some 40,000 attendees of Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKA) annual meeting.

That video is under lock and key, for the mass public never to see; the cast of The Office agreed to do the spoof with Buffett under those conditions. But I'll share a few choice lines here, since I saw the video at the annual meeting, and it was hilarious.

In the spoof, Buffett is seriously dissed upon arrival at Dunder Mifflin, where he is introduced as the Oracle of Omaha.

"Yeah, I'm Dwight Schrute, the Druid of Scranton."

Michael Scott, Steve Carell's character, notes that Buffett is "at least 90 years old and runs a company called Berkshire Hathaway that produces all of Anne Hathaway's movies."

Buffett jovially corrects him, explaining that Berkshire is a "collection of odds and ends. Mostly odds."

When Andy Bernard boasts that he graduated from Cornell -- "an Ivy League school" -- while Buffett went to the University of Nebraska, Buffett replies, "I got turned down by Harvard. Best thing that ever happened to me."

My favorite proposition to Buffett, from Meredith: "What do you say we take the 'D' off mutual funds and have a little mutual fun?" Buffett replies: "I should have gotten here earlier."

And when Dwight Schrute, realizing that Buffett, 80, is the real deal, says, "I look forward to serving as your No. 2," Warren has no use for him. In walks Charlie Munger, Berkshire's 87-year-old vice chairman. Says Schrute to Munger: "You don't look so tough." Munger leers at Schrute:"There are 18 ways I could kill you right now."

How did Buffett's star turn come about? Last November, Thanksgiving dinner at daughter Susie Buffett's house in Omaha included Warren and Michael Kives, her friend who is a talent agent at Creative Artists Agency. "We were talking about the annual meeting," recalls Susie. Kives suggested asking the producers of The Office to bring Warren and the cast together to do a spoof.

Warren Buffett was not a fan of the show. "He doesn't watch anything but news," his daughter says. But he's typically up for anything. One year at the Berkshire annual meeting, shareholders watched Buffett in a funny video with coy and comely actress Jamie Lee Curtis; another year, they were treated to a Berkshire twist on ABC's (DIS) Desperate Housewives.

This year, Buffett flew to Los Angeles by himself, met his daughter and Munger, who lives there, and went to The Office set to do his star turn. When they arrived, Munger was in the green room, all set, and Warren was a bit stressed. "My dad was confessing that he didn't practice his lines. He was hoping they would have cue cards, which they didn't."

Executive producer Greg Daniels was pleasantly surprised. "They were both great," he says about Buffett and Munger. "Their comic timing is terrific."

Truth is, Buffett wasn't supposed to be on tonight's Office finale on NBC (CMCSA). As Daniels headed to the set on the day they shot the spoof, he recalls, "I thought, wait a second. We should use Warren Buffett on the show -- while he's here with us."

So what you'll see tonight is improv, of sorts. Buffett's part on the Office was written for him on the spot. He nailed it.

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Monday, May 16, 2011

CNBC: New MasterCard Stake and Secret Holdings for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway

Published: Monday, 16 May 2011 | 5:11 PM ET

By: Alex Crippen
Executive Producer

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is reporting a new, but relatively small, stake in MasterCard.

It's not, however, publicly reporting some "confidential information" on its just-released 13-F filing with the SEC.

As of the end of the first quarter on March 31, Berkshire reports adding 216,000 shares of MasterCard to its U.S. stock holdings.

At today's closing price of $279.15, that stake is worth just over $60 million.

Current price: [MA 285.24 3.14 (+1.11%) ]

That's not much by Buffett standards and it is likely the stake was bought by Berkshire's new portfolio manager Todd Combs. He specializes in financial stocks.

Berkshire also reports a miniscule reduction in its holdings of ConocoPhillips, selling just 8,000 shares, a change of -0.02748 percent. Current price: [COP 72.64 0.30 (+0.41%) ]

But that's not the whole story. The filing notes that some information has been omitted from the document released to the public. Buffett's Berkshire sometimes asks for, and receives, SEC permission to keep some holdings secret, usually as the company is building a stake. That's designed to discourage copycat buyers who could drive up the price of Berkshire's future purchases.

Current Berkshire stock prices:

Class B: [BRK.B 78.04 -0.27 (-0.34%) ]

Class A: [BRK.A 117095.00 -503.00 (-0.43%) ]

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Friday, May 13, 2011

CNBC: Buffett's Berkshire Reluctantly Writes Down $506 Million in Stock 'Losses'

Published: Friday, 6 May 2011 | 7:00 PM ET

By: Alex Crippen
Executive Producer

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Warren Buffett

The basic headlines from tonight's quarterly earnings report by Berkshire Hathaway weren't a surprise. Warren Buffett previewed the numbers at last weekend's annual meeting.

There is, however, an interesting revelation we didn't know.

After discussions with the SEC on the subject, Berkshire Hathaway is recording $506 million in "other-than-temporary impairment losses" on two stock holdings: $169 million for Kraft Foods [KFT 34.80 0.53 (+1.55%) ] and $337 million for a portion of its Wells Fargo stake [WFC 28.16 --- UNCH (0) ].

That's not because Berkshire sold the shares at a loss. It's due to accounting rules that require write-downs for unrealized losses when they've been around for awhile. The rules, however, do not include a clear, unambiguous definition of "temporary."

In its 10-Q report, Berkshire acknowledges that most of the unrealized losses were more than two years old.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

MARKETWATCH: Tesco should reconsider U.S. push: Buffett

May 3, 2011, 3:14 a.m. EDT

By London Bureau

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Warren Buffett, speaking at a shareholders' conference in Omaha, Nebraska, has urged Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN) to take a hard look at its struggling American business, reports U.K. newspaper The Times Tuesday.

The revered investor, who holds 3% of Britain's biggest retailer, believes that Tesco was foolhardy in its attempts to enter the world's largest grocery market, the report says.

Charlie Munger, vice-chairman of Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway investment business, was even more forthright, saying that Tesco's West Coast adventure had been ill-advised, adding: "I could have told [Tesco] if they had asked me, but they didn't."

The comments will cause a stir because Tesco's new chief executive Philip Clarke has still not fully committed to Fresh & Easy, which operates in California, Nevada and Arizona, the report says.

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MOTLEY FOOL: Buffett Was Right to Ride the Rails

By Christopher Barker
May 2, 2011

After Berkshire Hathaway paid a 30% premium over the pre-bid share price to take railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe into its fold, I encouraged investors to attempt to outplay Warren Buffett with a parallel stake in one of the remaining high-quality North American haulers.

Much of the railroad industry has delivered substantial share-price gains since that landmark acquisition, led convincingly by smooth operator CSX (NYSE: CSX ) . As we pause here to examine first-quarter earnings performance by rivals Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC ) and Canadian National Railway (NYSE: CNI ) , the underlying conclusion is inescapable that Buffett's "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States" targeted an industry that was prepared to deliver returns even before the economic future of the United States can be confidently known.

Norfolk Southern chugged its way into a remarkable 32% profit surge to $0.90 per share, squeezing every last drop from a 17% increase in operating revenues amid rising costs. Fuel costs skyrocketed 53% to $135 million, but railroads are experts at adapting seamlessly through fuel surcharges. Overall freight volume increased by 8%. Norfolk's intermodal network, which FedEx has selected as its primary railroad hauler in the East, leveraged a 10% volume increase into an 18% jump in revenues for the category.

Looking to coal, which accounts for 31% of Norfolk's operating revenue, the hauler increased its coal volumes hauled to yield a powerful 30% increase in coal revenues. Norfolk shipped 13% more coal to utilities than it had for the prior-year period, but the greater driver of growth can be seen in the 24% increase in coal bound for export. Norfolk shipped 7.5 million tons of coal overseas during the quarter, while the annual capacity of 48 million tons at its Lamberts Point Coal Terminal in Virginia suggests a strong capacity to service further increases in export coal demand as Appalachian miner Patriot Coal and others have forecast.

Norfolk rival Canadian National Railway produced a more muted earnings result that featured just a 6% revenue increase and a 12.5% jump in adjusted earnings. Total carloadings rose only 3% over the prior-year period, but that didn't dissuade Canadian National from raising its 2011 guidance to anticipate 15% growth in earnings per share. Canadian National continues to lead the pack with a lean operating ratio of 69%, but the metric has risen sharply over recent quarters and threatens to permit CSX to slip into the top spot as that company targets a "high-sixties" operating ratio for 2011.

All of the major North American railroad operators have proven their agility, efficiency, and resiliency in spades throughout this challenging period of gradually resurgent freight demand. In the final analysis, I still think Fools have a fair shot at matching or beating Warren Buffett's percentage return on the Burlington acquisition by employing the same long-term, buy-and-hold approach with any of the quality haulers discussed above.

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CNBC: Warren Buffett to CNBC: "Felt Good" When He Heard of Osama Bin Laden's Death

Published: Monday, 2 May 2011 | 8:13 AM ET

By: Alex Crippen
Executive Producer

Warren Buffett tells CNBC that he "felt good" when he first heard the United States had killed Osama Bin Laden.

"It was joy."

He says his "thoughts went back to 9/11" and he remembered his outrage watching pictures of the attacks on CNBC.

In a live interview this morning on CNBC's Squawk Box following the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, Buffett says he's always had faith in the country to accomplish anything.

Still, he warns, the threat of terrorism has not been eliminated with Bin Laden's death.

On the U.S. economy, Buffett says the pace of the recovery has been slow but "steady," more steady than the nation's mood.

He expects that when residential construction comes back, the lagging labor market will reflect the improved economy.

Buffett predicts it will be "interesting to watch" as the Federal Reserve winds down its balance sheet, removing a major source of stimulus from the economy.

CNBC

Warren Buffett appearing live from Omaha on CNBC's Squawk Box, May 2, 2011

Asked about the recent increase in energy prices, Buffett says it definitely has an impact, acting, in effect, as a tax increase that goes to OPEC rather than the United States Treasury. He believes the best way to deal with prices is for the country to use less oil.

Buffett again expressed pessimism on the long-term trend of the U.S. dollar, saying he wouldn't bet on it against other currencies.

On the David Sokol scandal, a prime topic at this weekend's shareholders meeting, Buffett repeats that he thought Sokol's trading in Lubrizol shares was "wrong."

Asked why he didn't show more "outrage" in the news release he wrote in late March announcing Sokol's resignation, Buffett says at the time he thought his anger was evident from the fact he didn't ask Sokol to stay with the company, as he had done several times before.

Buffett says Sokol probably thought the original news release was "ruthless" even if the rest of the world did not. "I wrote the press release, so if it came off badly, it's my fault."

While Buffett says he can't say with "absolute certainty," he's never seen any evidence in the markets or otherwise that anyone had tried to frontrun a Berkshire deal.

Sokol has said he doesn't think his ownership of Lubrizol shares was any different from Charlie Munger holding shares in BYD before Berkshire took a 10 percent stake in the Chinese electric-car maker.

Buffett says the difference is timing. (Munger made the same argument in a taped interview with Becky Quick yesterday.) Munger held his BYD position for some time before Berkshire got interested. Sokol had bought his shares only weeks before recommending Lubrizol's purchase to Buffett. Berkshire wound up buying the company at a 28 percent premium in mid-March.

Responding to a complaint from Sokol's lawyer, Buffett says Berkshire's Audit Committee, author of last week's scathing report on Sokol, would still welcome any chance to hear Sokol's side.

In a statement late Saturday, Sokol lawyer Barry Levine says his client is "deeply saddened" that Buffett "would disparage him as he has done today" and again maintained that Sokol never broke the law or any Berkshire policy.

2011 BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

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Everything Warren Buffett

Latest Buffett Headlines

Monday, May 30, 2011

FINANCIAL TIMES: Key role for Buffett over utility’s fate

BUSINESSWEEK: About 36,000 attended Berkshire Hathaway meeting

Thursday, May 19, 2011

CNN MONEY: How Warren Buffett got a role in The Office finale

Monday, May 16, 2011

CNBC: New MasterCard Stake and Secret Holdings for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway

Friday, May 13, 2011

CNBC: Buffett's Berkshire Reluctantly Writes Down $506 Million in Stock 'Losses'

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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

MARKETWATCH: Tesco should reconsider U.S. push: Buffett

MOTLEY FOOL: Buffett Was Right to Ride the Rails

CNBC: Warren Buffett to CNBC: "Felt Good" When He Heard of Osama Bin Laden's Death

2011 BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

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