oil and insurance
Warren Buffett invests billions
04/30/2022, 10:14 p.m
US star investor Warren Buffett is taking the months of skyrocketing oil prices as an opportunity to expand his holdings in oil companies. His company Berkshire Hathaway is increasing stakes in Chevron and Occidental Petroleum. The 91-year-old announces further deals.
Star investor Warren Buffett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway has invested a large part of its enormous cash assets in acquisitions after a long hesitation. The increase in blocks of shares in the oil companies Chevron and Occidental Petroleum contributed to the fact that the cash on hand fell by $40 billion to $106 billion from January to March, as Berkshire Hathaway announced at the annual general meeting .
At the first general meeting at the company’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, since 2019, 91-year-old Buffett, who his fans also jokingly call the “Orakel of Omaha”, answered questions from the shareholders. Over the past year, the company, which Buffett has led for 57 years, repeatedly returned its money to its shareholders with billions in share buybacks. As a reason, Buffett had called a lack of attractive investment opportunities.
But in recent months, Berkshire Hathaway has used soaring oil prices as an opportunity to increase its holdings in oil companies. In addition, the investment company announced a takeover of the insurance group Alleghany for 11.6 billion dollars (11 billion euros). Operating profit remained roughly stable in the first quarter at 7.04 (same quarter last year: 7.02) billion dollars (6.68 or 6.66 billion euros). Berkshire Hathaway’s net income fell 53 percent to $5.46 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway has interests in a variety of companies, including insurance companies and a rail freight company. Operating profit for the quarter was flat at just over $7 billion as a result of weaker insurance business, which was roughly offset by gains from other holdings.