Berkshire News Briefs - 11/6/14

Berkshire Hathaway is expected to release its 3rd quarter earnings after the market closes on Friday, November 7.

3 Things to Watch When Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Reports Earnings (Fool)

The elephant in the room with Berkshire Hathaway is the question surrounding what will be done with the mountain of cash it's currently sitting on. At the end of June, Berkshire had $55.5 billion in cold, hard cash sitting on its balance sheet. Astoundingly, that's nearly $20 billion more than it had in June of last year [...] In other words, in one year's time, Berkshire brought in cash roughly equivalent to the market value of Chipotle Mexican Grill. So the question becomes, what will Buffett do with all of that cash?

How Buffett's Brooks Running plans to become a $1 billion brand (Fortune)

Brooks Running Co., a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, hit the $500 million mark in annual sales last April. The company hit that milestone as a result of CEO Jim Weber’s efforts over a decade to specialize on running, rather than trying to be a mini-Nike and be all things to all people. The result is a 13% share of the performance running shoe market (Nike is in the low 40’s). Weber, CEO since 2001, says the company can become a billion-dollar brand at some point thanks to an overhaul to its apparel selection hitting stores in a year, a continued focus on marketing to runners specifically and sponsoring the right running events.

Crash into flight simulator company stops training (HutchNews)

(FlightSafety has been owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 1996.)

A twin-engine Beechcraft King Air crashed into the FlightSafety Cessna Pilot Learning Center on Thursday, killing the pilot and three people inside flight simulators. The cause of the crash, which also seriously damaged the building, is still being investigated. [...] FlightSafey will "definitely have to scramble" but has a large network to help and is good at managing situations, said Rolland Vincent, an aviation consultant. "This is very disruptive," Vincent said. "These flight simulators are very busy and are booked well in advance."

More:

FlightSafety operates five centers in Wichita (The Wichita Eagle)

The building struck by a Beechcraft King Air B200 at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport shortly after takeoff Thursday is one of FlightSafety International’s five centers in Wichita. Wichita has the highest concentration of FlightSafety centers in the world, the company has said. Pilots and maintenance technicians come to Wichita from around the world to train in Cessna, Learjet, Beechcraft and Hawker products.

Three bets going sour on Buffett (MarketWatch)

(Referencing losses with Tesco, IBM, and Coca-Cola.)

Judging by the share price alone, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is having a terrific 2014. After all, Berkshire Hathaway is up 17.7% year to date, trouncing the 7.95% rise in S&P 500. [...] Recently, several of Buffett's high-profile bets have fallen out of bed. Each stumble has its own particular explanation. But taken together, they share an overarching theme. The moats that protect these businesses aren't as wide as they once were. Even worse, competitors aren't even bothering to try to cross them. They're just inventing a completely different way of doing business.

MidAmerican Signs Longterm Wind-Power Services Deal With Siemens (Bloomberg Businessweek)

MidAmerican Energy Co., the utility owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has signed an agreement through June 2024 with Siemens AG to support a dozen wind farms in Iowa. Siemens will provide service and maintenance for 958 turbines that will have a combined capacity of more than 2.2 gigawatts, according to a statement today. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

Buffett Railroad’s Shale Focus Blunts Ports’ Comeback Bid (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Seattle and Tacoma are being stymied in their push to regain market share from Canada as railcars destined for the harbors sit idle on tracks across the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Even as the ports, on Washington’s Puget Sound, agreed to consolidate some operations after a century of competition, 40-fold growth in shipments of crude from the Bakken oil fields is straining the region’s main railroad company, BNSF Railway Co., causing delays that have helped shift traffic to less congested harbors in Canada. In September, as many as 150 grain cars piled up in nearby rail yards, said Dale Frazier, manager of Seattle Bulk Shipping Inc.

Forest River, Thor Foundation to Aid Employees (RV Business)

Forest River Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company, and publicly held Thor Industries Inc. yesterday (Nov. 4) announced the establishment of an unprecedented community foundation set up to benefit the 15,000-plus employees of the two RV-building corporate giants and their families during times of need. The Forest River/Thor Community Foundation will be jointly funded by the two companies and will provide grants of up to $20,000 per qualifying employee or family to help cover emergency financial needs incurred in a variety of unforeseen family crises such as acute illnesses, natural disasters, fires or other hardships. Both firms are based in Elkhart, Ind.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/24/14

Earnings announcement for BRK/B: Nov 07, 2014 (Nasdaq)

Warren Buffett Puts Wind in Berkshire’s Sails (WSJ)

Through a majority-owned subsidiary, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Mr. Buffett plans to double the $15 billion already committed to renewable-energy projects through early this year, and he is on the hunt for more utility acquisitions. [...] The energy unit is key to Berkshire’s future—it generates more than 7% of the conglomerate’s earnings, and is likely to climb—while also providing Mr. Buffett a way to invest Berkshire’s ever-growing cash pile. [...] Another reason many Buffett watchers are paying attention: Berkshire Hathaway Energy is run by Greg Abel, a 52-year-old Canadian who is among the younger executives seen by analysts as possibly succeeding the 84-year-old billionaire as CEO.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire equity portfolio goes awry; loses $5 bn since June 30 (Economic Times)

Sharp drops in many of the stocks owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in recent weeks hit the sprawling conglomerate's equity portfolio hard. The loss on seven of those holdings alone totals more than $5 billion provided Berkshire's stakes have remained the same since June 30, the last date for which they were disclosed. In particular, Berkshire has been stung by large holdings in IBM and long-time Buffett favorite Coca-Cola, both of which tumbled after disappointing third-quarter results. His penchant for energy stocks hasn't helped either, given the damage done to the prices of energy assets by the slumping global oil price.

Warren Buffett sells more Tesco shares (The Guardian)

Berkshire Hathaway has further reduced its stake in Tesco in the wake of the admission by the investment group’s boss, Warren Buffett, that buying into the troubled supermarket group was a “huge mistake”. In a statement to the stock exchange, Tesco revealed that Berkshire Hathaway had reduced its holding on 13 October to less than 3% – one of the thresholds at which a company must inform the market.

Berkshire Hathaway: 20%+ Undervalued? DCF Calculation (Seeking Alpha)

The intrinsic value of BRK.B is calculated to be $166.94. This represents 22% upside from today's price. Zacks has recently upgraded Berkshire to 1 (Strong Buy) as analyst estimates have moved upwards. Berkshire is well diversified and is strongly equipped to handle adverse macroeconomic conditions. The company has returned an impressive 19.7% average growth in book value for the last 49 years.

Where in the World Is Warren Buffett? Everywhere (Bloomberg)

There's the Warren Buffett of the flavor industry. There's the Warren Buffett of “super-fancy hotels.” There are Buffetts of barges and of bass fishing, of Tampa, Thailand and Turkey. There's even a Warren Buffett of C-block, where a stock-picking, Buffett-quoting convicted murderer has been dubbed the Oracle of San Quentin. [...] while people around the world are anointed "The Warren Buffett of..." this and that, willy-nilly, the 84-year-old investor actually wants his personal brand to take a back seat to the Berkshire Hathaway's.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/8/14

Buffett to Buy Van Tuyl, Create Berkshire Auto Unit (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy Van Tuyl Group, the largest privately owned U.S. auto dealership group. The business, with more than 100 franchises, will be renamed Berkshire Hathaway Automotive and continue to be run by Larry Van Tuyl, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement that didn’t disclose terms. The target company has more than $8 billion of revenue. “I fully expect we’ll buy a lot more dealerships,” Buffett told CNBC in an interview today. “We’ve gone a long time without getting into automobiles, but Larry’s got an operation that we think could be scaled up a lot from where it is.”

Buffett's Van Tuyl purchase puts top retailers in cross hairs (AutoNews)

When Buffett signed a deal to buy Van Tuyl Group last week through his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investment company, he clearly signaled that the top four dealership groups are in his sights. When a CNBC host mentioned AutoNation Inc. and said it was the country's biggest auto retailer, Buffett quipped: "Temporarily." "This is just the beginning for Berkshire Hathaway Automotive," Buffett said of the new venture, which is being called the biggest acquisition by far in automotive retail history. Terms weren't disclosed, but outsiders estimated the all-cash price tag at over $4 billion.

Ironwood Plastics expanding to keep up with growing demand (Plastics News)

Custom injection molder Ironwood Plastics Inc. has embarked on an ambitious expansion program. The Ironwood, Mich., company will spend $19 million in Twin Rivers, Wis., to buy a building next door to its factory there and to add injection presses. [...] Ironwood’s new strategic push is partly due to it being part of CTB Inc., a Milford, Ind., company that sells internationally. CTB primarily makes agricultural products and most of its molded components are made in house but Ironwood molds a few complex parts for CTB. CTB has been owned by investment giant Berkshire Hathaway Inc. since 2002. The CTB and Berkshire Hathaway connections help Ironwood’s access to capital and give customers more confidence to do business with the custom molder. CTB acquired Ironwood in 2010 from the Stephens family, which had founded it in 1979.

Billionaire Buffett Says Tesco Investment Was ‘A Huge Mistake’ (Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said his investment in Tesco Plc was a “huge mistake,” as the U.K. supermarket leader’s share price remains close to an 11-year low amid declining sales and an accounting probe. [...] Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has held Tesco shares since March 2006, when it acquired a stake for $328.7 million. By 2012, the holding had reached 5.08 percent of the grocer’s shares, worth about 1.3 billion pounds ($2.1 billion). More recently, Buffett has been cutting the stake, owning 3.7 percent of the shares as of Dec. 31, according to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report.

Warren Buffett’s Big Bet on Renewables in Nevada (NY Times)

Thanks in part to the transmission lines alongside Interstate 15, Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, and its subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy stand to make steady, predictable profits in an energy market undergoing transformations. “This is not a value play,” said Christine Tezak, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners, referring to Mr. Buffett’s normally conservative investing approach. “He’s looking at this as a way to participate in the structural shift taking place in the power and energy industry.”

California Is Integrating Buffett’s Western Utilities Into Its Grid Balancing Market (GreenTechGrid)

Starting next month, PacifiCorp will start simulating the trading of generation and grid capacity every fifteen minutes on CAISO’s market, with “financially binding” operations to start in November, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. CAISO is also working with NV Energy to add most of Nevada’s grid to its EIM as well, with operations set to start in fall 2015. Both utilities are owned by Berkshire Hathaway [...] The rewards, according to a study by the Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) research group, could add up to $21 million to $129 million for PacifiCorp by 2017 or so, as the company buys lower-cost power from California’s grid or sells its own capacity when CAISO prices are high.

Buffett’s ‘All-Equities’ Pensions Escape Bill Gross Drama (Bloomberg)

Bill Gross’s departure from Pacific Investment Management Co. sent ripples through the bond market. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. pensioners didn’t feel it. Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, said today that he didn’t know of a single investment that his company or its dozens of subsidiaries had with Pimco, manager of the world’s largest bond fund. Why? “We manage all of our pensions internally, except for those connected with the utility business,” Buffett said today in an interview with CNBC. “We are all-equities, anyways. We don’t have any bonds in our pension funds.”

The Future Realignment of Berkshire Hathaway Will Be an Investors’ Bonanza (Fool)

[...] even though the Omaha, Neb.-based billionaire is continuing to grow his empire, completing two multi-billion dollar deals in 2013 alone, it is inevitable that Berkshire will someday reverse course and unleash the greatest spin-off investment bonanza the world has ever seen. [...] Upon Berkshire's realignment, these two deals alone could spawn upwards of 50 independent companies. Heinz will be able to spin off over 10 of its corporations to shareholders, and I envision Hortons, along with Burger King, following suit with over 40 separate entities.

Buffett Gets His Wish: Coke Is Revising Executive Pay Plan (Forbes)

It’s been a good week for billionaire investors: on Tuesday, Carl Icahn got his way when eBay announced that it and PayPal will go their separate ways. And on Wednesday, Coca-Cola announced that it will revise the executive pay structure that Warren Buffett recently called “excessive.”

Warren Buffet Dismisses Berkshire's Low Score On LGBT Policies; Says He's Supportive (On Top Magazine)

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffet has dismissed a report that gave his investment firm a low score for its LGBT policies. Berkshire scored a “0” on the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which ranks companies based on employment policies and practices pertaining to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. [...] “I do not set the policies for the 75 companies,” he said, then added, “Certainly, our managers know how I feel. I am 100% for full rights, in every respect, for gays and lesbians.”

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/1/14

The wrath of Warren Buffett: How Benjamin Moore almost broke his promise (Fortune)

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.

Berkshire News Briefs - 10/29/13

Ketchup changeup: McDonald's dropping Heinz after CEO change (Reuters)

McDonald's Corp on Friday said it plans to end its 40-year relationship with ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co, since that company is now led by Bernardo Hees, the former chief executive of hamburger rival Burger King Worldwide Inc. "As a result of recent management changes at Heinz, we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers over time," McDonald's said in a statement.

Buffett's Berkshire cuts Tesco stake by $485 million (Chicago Tribune / Reuters)

I think the Tesco sale is related to Marmon's IMI purchase... Berkshire keeping UK money in the UK to avoid the tax issues of moving money to and from the US.

Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has slashed its stake in Britain's Tesco by 300 million pounds ($484.75 million), weeks after the world's No.3 retailer posted disappointing half-year results. [...] Berkshire, a Tesco shareholder since 2006, cut its holding to 3.98 percent from 4.98 percent on October 16, filings on the London Stock Exchange website showed. However it still remains one of its biggest investments outside the United States. Berkshire's Marmon Group had announced on the same day that it had agreed to buy two businesses from British engineering company IMI for 690 million pounds.

Buffett: Why I didn't buy the Washington Post (CNN / Fortune)

As the Graham family exits emotionally from the Washington Post newspaper, and new owner Jeff Bezos stays mum about his plans, some fresh details about who did not buy the paper have emerged. Participating in a Q&A last week at Washington's Metropolitan Club, Warren Buffett, 83, spoke of his long-term affection for the paper and said he had "briefly" considered buying it when it went on sale earlier this year. But he then decided the purchase wouldn't work.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company Earns No. 1 Spot in Industrial Customer Satisfaction Among U.S. Electric Utility Companies (Business Wire)

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company ranks No. 1 in the U.S. for overall customer satisfaction among large commercial and industrial customers of electric utility holding companies, according to 2013 data released this week by TQS Research, Inc. The company’s ongoing emphasis on customer satisfaction and sharing of best practices resulted in all three of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company’s U.S. utilities – MidAmerican Energy Company, Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power – contributing to the top ranking. MidAmerican Energy Company, based in Des Moines, Iowa, earned a very satisfied rating of 95.4 percent from the large commercial and industrial customers included in the survey.

Jain feeds Buffett’s hunger (Insurance Insider)

This story is really "inside baseball" about the insurance industry, and very heavy on the metaphor, which you can see from the intro.

People are starting to worry about him. The changes in diet. The idiosyncratic decisions. The silence. He isn't quite the man he used to be, isn't quite himself. Everyone is talking about it: speculating about his motives, glossing his actions, promulgating theories, kvetching about its implications. Which is to say that Ajit Jain, the softly spoken, smiling carnivore par excellence of the reinsurance world has of late taken up omnivorous habits. Where Jain was previously notorious for holding aloof until he scented blood, then attacking ferociously and making off with hefty chunks of red meat in his mouth, the last two years have seen him extend his diet in surprisingly catholic ways.

Willis to Allocate Risks to Insurers Including Berkshire (Bloomberg)

Willis Group Holdings Plc, the third-largest insurance broker by market value, agreed to allocate as much as 25 percent of premiums from the London corporate specialist market to pre-selected insurers. Underwriters in the group include Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China Ltd. and Hiscox Ltd., said Colleen McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the London-based broker. [...] Aon Plc, the second-largest broker, announced a similar deal with Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire in March to shoulder risks from the Lloyd’s of London market. Berkshire agreed to provide Willis’s clients additional coverage for oil drilling following BP Plc’s 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Johns Manville expands micro glass fibre nonwoven capacity in Germany (Innovation in Textiles)

I'm mostly including this link because I don't find opportunities to talk about Johns Manville very often.

Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company and a leading manufacturer of premium-quality building, specialty and filtration products, has completed an expansion of its micro glass fibre nonwoven production for air filtration media in its plant in Wertheim, Germany. The company’s micro glass fibre nonwovens are used as top-performance media in HVAC filtration applications and also as aircraft insulation. The company also recently announced an additional investment of EUR 32 million in a state-of-the-art PET spunbond line for filtration products at its production site in Berlin.

Also, the nationwide rebranding of "Prudential Real Estate" into "Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate" continues on, with Austin and Kansas City the major markets making the switch in the past week. I gave up on posting all the press releases from all the real estate brokerages and all the small-town newspaper business section stories, but this story is still in progress.

The Buffetts on Charity, Succession, and TV (Bloomberg Video)

Berkshire Hathaway chairman/CEO Warren Buffett, board member Howard G. Buffett and Howard W. Buffett, executive director at Howard G. Buffett Foundation, talk with Betty Liu about their book “40 Chances,” their philanthropic endeavors, succession at Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett’s love of the TV show “Breaking Bad.” They speak on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop.”

Warren Buffett shows off his ukulele skills (Today)

"Now, here it is, your moment of zen..."

Warren Buffett — business mogul, investor, philanthropist ... ukulele player? The 83-year-old financial legend stopped by TODAY with son Howard G. Buffett and grandson Howard W. Buffett to discuss their new book "40 Chances" but also showed off his lesser known talents in the Orange Room: singing and playing the ukulele. As if the billionaire doesn't have enough going for him. He said he learned to play in college for an age-old reason. "I play off and on, but I just wanted to impress a girl I was keen on," Buffett said. "It didn't work."