the stock market
NEW YORK (awp/afp) – Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of Warren Buffett, announced Saturday a staggering net loss of nearly 44 billion dollars in the second quarter, linked to the fall of its shares on the stock markets, very shaken on this period.
The first half of 2022 was indeed the worst the New York Stock Exchange has seen since 1970, causing the value of the huge portfolio of various stocks held by the holding company to plummet on the markets.
This is not the first time that the holding company has recorded such a loss: in the first quarter of 2020 already, the rout of the stock markets caused by the pandemic had caused Berkshire Hathaway to lose nearly $ 50 billion.
Between April and June 2022, the total loss related to investments in the markets amounts to 53 billion dollars, which could not be compensated by the rise of 38.8%, to 9.3 billion dollars , the operating profit generated by the companies that the holding company owns (from insurance companies to trains, energy and frozen desserts).
In total, the group therefore lost 43.8 billion dollars in the quarter, when it had won 28 billion last year at the same time.
“The amount of investment gains/losses in a given quarter is generally meaningless,” Berkshire Hathaway warned in its earnings release.
The holding had, in the first quarter, bought more than 51 billion dollars of shares, in particular passing the oil major Chevron in the top 4 of its investments alongside American Express, Apple and Bank of America.
It had also acquired 14% of Occidental Petroleum, increased its stake in the manufacturer of computers and printers HP as well as in the video game publisher Activision – in the process of being acquired by Microsoft -, and planned to buy the company Alleghany Insurance Company for $11.6 billion.
Canadian Greg Abel has been named to succeed Berkshire Hathaway multi-billionaire Warren Buffet, nicknamed “the Oracle of Omaha” – named after his hometown in Nebraska – and who will turn 92 at the end of of the month.
jul/cm