Benjamin Moore is on its third CEO in 2 years, and a combination of strategic zigzags and the dealers’ feelings of betrayal has caused the company to fall behind its main rivals. Moore’s revenues rose a cumulative 40% between 1999 and 2013, while competitors Sherwin Williams and Valspar boosted their revenues, 104% and 196%, respectively. Moore’s revenues declined in the first half of 2014 [...] Buffett says he’s comfortable with the no-big-box stance, even if it means lower sales volume for now. He emphasizes the fact that Moore is a high-end product, what he calls “the best paint out there.” As he puts it, “They’re not the paint for everybody. We’re not in, and we won’t be in, the low-priced paint set… We will not be the top ever in market share. The mass market is going to be bigger than the high-end market. But there will always be a high-end market.”
Buy Like Buffett: A Love Story (Forbes - Video)
Buy Like Buffett: A Love Story is the journey of a young couple expressed through the lens of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. companies, because what says “I Love You” better than a box of See’s candy?
Warren Buffett’s Energy Company Says Net Metering Should Be ‘Eliminated’ (Green Tech Media)
In a strategy document written by SVP Brent Gale for a legal conference in July, Berkshire Hathaway Energy outlined its position on net metering, saying it should be scrapped in favor of a system that recognizes utility fixed-grid costs and utilizes distributed generation at times when it's needed most. [...] Berkshire Hathaway owns a number of regulated utilities, including NV Energy and PacifiCorp. NV Energy and Rocky Mountain Power, a power company run by PacifiCorp in Utah, are both lobbying to make changes to net metering and add fixed charges to the bills of customers getting credited for their solar power.
Similar Story: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy wants to get rid of net metering (Utility Dive)
NetJets gets OK to begin serving China (Columbus Dispatch / AP)
NetJets said yesterday that its new joint venture soon will begin offering private charter flights in China now that regulators there have granted the company an operating certificate. NetJets, which sells partial ownership interests in business jets in the United States and Europe, has been working since 2012 to gain approval to set up operations in China.
Berkshire Expands in Company-Crime Insurance With New AIG Hire (Bloomberg)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s specialty insurance business, created last year to expand into new niches, is adding sales of coverage to protect employers against misdeeds by their staffs. Brian O’Neill was hired from American International Group Inc. (AIG) to lead the push into the fidelity and crime insurance market, the unit of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement.
AIG And Berkshire Hathaway Had Secret Non-Compete Agreement (ValueWalk)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and American International Group Inc had a secret non-compete agreement in place over hiring employees for a year that has now ended, according to a recent Bloomberg TV interview. The interview revealed that American International Group Inc threatened legal action in order to encourage Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to agree not to hire additional AIG’s executives for one year. Berkshire had poached AIG executives Peter Eastwood, David Fields, Sanjay Godhwani and David Bresnahan in 2013 for what Buffett described as a “big time” expansion into business insurance coverage. [...] Benhosche didn’t indicate exactly what the executives may have done wrong, but made references to stealing intellectual property and poaching client business.
Berkshire Hathaway invests in Northwoods values (Stevens Point Journal)
The name of the company is fairly new, but the presence of a travel insurance company led by John Noel in central Wisconsin is anything but. [...] Noel, now president of BHTP, founded Noel Group in 2006 after selling Travel Guard, a travel insurance company he founded in his basement in 1985. Today, Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection employs about 230 people in Wisconsin and Florida and is expected to grow to about 2,000 workers over the next five years. Noel said in an interview that the majority of those jobs will be located in central Wisconsin, and that he's happy to continue to provide an opportunity for people to live and work in the region.
FlightSafety’s pilot training center at Port Columbus costing $110M (Columbus Business First)
FlightSafety International’s new pilot training facility at Port Columbus International Airport clearly is a major project at 55,000 square feet and the potential to add 90,000. But new information made public by JobsOhio shows just how big the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) subsidiary’s investment is - $110.5 million. [...] FlightSafety’s $110.5 million capital investment will help it retain 137 jobs and create another 18, adding $1.2 million to its local payroll, according to JobsOhio’s report. The sister company to Columbus-based NetJets declined to breakdown those costs, but industry sources in May said its six flight simulators will run into the millions of dollars.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway among possible bidders for Oncor Electric (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram)
CenterPoint Energy, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Hunt Consolidated of Dallas are among companies that signed confidentiality agreements to explore bids for Energy Future Holdings’ Oncor electricity distributor, people familiar with the matter said. [...] Dallas-based EFH, which was taken private in a record leveraged buyout seven years ago, filed for bankruptcy in April with a plan to split off the side of the company that owns the profitable Oncor business. In July, the company — which also operates TXU Energy and Luminant — bowed to pressure from lender groups to gather bids for Oncor. [...] Oncor, which operates the largest distribution and transmission business in Texas, delivers electricity to more than 3 million homes and businesses and serves Dallas-Fort Worth. The company is prized because it’s poised to take advantage of population growth in the state and it has said it plans to invest $1 billion annually in power lines through 2018.
Redundancy costs push Fruit of the Loom further into the red (Irish Independent)
New accounts filed by Dublin registered FOL International - which is owned by the Warren Buffet controlled company Berkshire Hathaway - show that the firm recorded a pre-tax loss last year of €6.78m and this followed pre-tax losses of €23.49m in 2012. FOL International represents clothing manufacturer Fruit of the Loom's European operations. The accounts show that the loss last year occurred after restructuring costs of €6.35m. At its peak, iconic US brand Fruit of the Loom employed 3,500 people in six plants on the island of Ireland. Last year's restructuring comes almost a decade after the company announced in 2004 that it would shut its remaining two factories with the loss of 650 jobs in Donegal and Derry.
Warren Buffett's $750 million grocery bill (WSEE-12)
Warren Buffett may be feeling rotten after investing in a British grocery chain that's gone bad. His famed investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, is the third biggest Tesco shareholder, with a stake of almost 4%. Tesco is the U.K.'s leading supermarket operator. Berkshire is now nursing losses of about $750 million on the investment after the shares plunged by about 43% this year. It paid about $1.7 billion for the stake.
Similar story if you want to read more about Tesco:
The Rise and Fall of U.K. Grocer Tesco That ‘Owned The World’ (Bloomberg)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charles Munger recently summed up the past seven years of Tesco Plc, Britain’s biggest grocer, in a beat. “Tesco owned the world,” said Munger, whose firm last disclosed a 3.7 percent stake in the company. And “one day, it stopped working so well.”
An alternative take on Buffett and Burger King (MarketWatch)
What really made this deal come together was the financing provided by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. He was more than eager to do so. On the surface it may be because of the generous preferred financing that was packaged together by Buffett for Burger King, $3 billion of which yields 9%. However, when I look at the deal, Buffett is providing financing at a cheaper rate than what Burger King currently borrows for long-term financing. Why would he do that, as the company is riskier after the acquisition than before? One could argue that the convertibility factor of the preferred stock has some benefit to Buffett. However, is Burger King a company which would normally fit his investment criteria?
How Warren Buffett Plans to Make You Money (Fool)
While the headline news will always be about what stocks Berkshire Hathaway buys and sells, it's critical to understand Buffett doesn't see those investments as the driving forces which will deliver shareholder returns. His first two points indicate as much, and instead he wants us to see that the things which will propel the value of Berkshire Hathaway forward into the future will come from the collection of operating businesses which now make up Berkshire itself.
ATCO lawyer argues verbal cross-examinations needed around sale of AltaLink (Calgary Sun)
Competitor ATCO continues their effort to derail the BH Energy purchase of AltaLink. I thought this story was over, but apparently not.
The impending sale of AltaLink to business mogul Warren Buffet’s energy arm should be subject to an oral cross-examination to protect Alberta consumers from runaway electricity rates, an ATCO lawyer argued Friday. [...] But SNC-Lavalin lawyer Bernette Ho said the reviews have already been fairly handled and accused ATCO of not being fully forthcoming during the process. AltaLink officials say ATCO has tried unsuccessfully to purchase their company.
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