Warrent Buffet by Robert Heller
Warren Buffett
Business Masterminds
By Robert Heller
Introduction
• All his investments were channeled through Berkshire Hathaway. • Buffett snubbed high-tech super growth stars and bough massive stakes in ordinary shares in long-established giants like AMEX, Coca Cola and Gillette • Never invest unless you can find something worth buying • He is interested only in realities and is free from any illusions • Common sense and consistent rationality win the day even in irrational markets
• He always looked for businesses whose intrinsic value was greater than the stock price • Anyone who invested $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 would now be worth $51 million • Warren Buffett is worth $40 billion – almost all of it is invested in Berkshire Hathaway • Berkshire also owns General Re, America’s largest re-insurance company which cost $22 billion in 1998 • Buffett’s unique success as an investor has depended on others not following his ideas • Berkshire had a net worth of $57.4 billion in May 1999 • Buffett almost always purchases in cash and not in stocks (save for General Re and 4.3% share in McDonalds in 1995) • Buffett prefers companies that are focused on a single powerful brand that has a dominant share in an easily understood market • 74% or Berkshire’s assets consist of shares in other companies • Buffett presides over $82 billion in wholly owned operating companies which employ no less than 47, 566 workers • Insurance investments bring in $14 billion, home furnishings $793 million, flight services $850 million and Scott Fetzer (everything from vacuum cleaners to encyclopedias) $1 billion • Most conglomerates have subtracted rather than added to the value of their subsidiaries • Buffett is striving to build a company that will outlast him: a portfolio for stock market investments would not serve that purpose
Chapter 1
• Buffett
Business Masterminds
By Robert Heller
Introduction
• All his investments were channeled through Berkshire Hathaway. • Buffett snubbed high-tech super growth stars and bough massive stakes in ordinary shares in long-established giants like AMEX, Coca Cola and Gillette • Never invest unless you can find something worth buying • He is interested only in realities and is free from any illusions • Common sense and consistent rationality win the day even in irrational markets
• He always looked for businesses whose intrinsic value was greater than the stock price • Anyone who invested $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 would now be worth $51 million • Warren Buffett is worth $40 billion – almost all of it is invested in Berkshire Hathaway • Berkshire also owns General Re, America’s largest re-insurance company which cost $22 billion in 1998 • Buffett’s unique success as an investor has depended on others not following his ideas • Berkshire had a net worth of $57.4 billion in May 1999 • Buffett almost always purchases in cash and not in stocks (save for General Re and 4.3% share in McDonalds in 1995) • Buffett prefers companies that are focused on a single powerful brand that has a dominant share in an easily understood market • 74% or Berkshire’s assets consist of shares in other companies • Buffett presides over $82 billion in wholly owned operating companies which employ no less than 47, 566 workers • Insurance investments bring in $14 billion, home furnishings $793 million, flight services $850 million and Scott Fetzer (everything from vacuum cleaners to encyclopedias) $1 billion • Most conglomerates have subtracted rather than added to the value of their subsidiaries • Buffett is striving to build a company that will outlast him: a portfolio for stock market investments would not serve that purpose
Chapter 1
• Buffett