 |
Insurances |
Welcome to Insurances,
subject Berkshire Sees an Insurance Acquisition
OMAHA, Neb. (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) (BRKb.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) expects in the next few weeks to announce an insurance acquisition worth less than $1 billion, the billionaire told shareholders on Saturday at Berkshire's annual meeting. Buffett said the acquisition, which he declined to identify, is almost certain to go through. He said Omaha-based Berkshire ended the quarter with about $44 billion of cash, up from $43.4 billion at the end of the year, and repeated that he would like to make a $5 billion to $10 billion acquisition. Separately, Buffett said Berkshire suffered a $310 million first-quarter mark-to-market loss on its foreign currency contracts, which he said total a little more than $21 billion. They totaled $21.4 billion at the end of the year. Buffett also gave a preview of first-quarter results, saying we had an unusually good quarter, especially in insurance. Insurance underwriting income was almost $500 million pretax, nearly $200 million more than a year earlier, he said.
Back to Insurances