Berkshire Hathaway News

Disaster Losses Cut Q3 Berkshire Hathaway Profits by 43%

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Friday that its third-quarter profit fell 43 percent because of a $1.4 billion insurance underwriting loss from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and earthquakes in Mexico. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate owns Geico and several …

Berkshire Hathaway Likely to Post First Losses in More Than a Decade

The insurance business has been good to Warren Buffett. For decades, his stable of carriers at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. have provided him billions of dollars to invest. They’ve also turned an underwriting profit every year since 2002. That streak could …

Buffett Says Hurricane Harvey Damage Will Linger

Billionaire Warren Buffett says the storm damage in Texas is staggering, but he isn’t sure yet how much insurance companies will have to pay in claims. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns Geico and several other insurers, so his company will …

Gen Re Names Rotatori CEO, Clark to Become President

Gen Re, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, announced several planned organizational changes prompted by Gerard Lynch’s announcement that he will be retiring December 31, 2014. Lynch has been chairman and CEO since founding New England Asset Management (NEAM) in 1984. Effective …

Buffett Doesn’t Think Climate Change Causing More Disasters

Warren Buffett says the rate of disasters that Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance companies see hasn’t changed because of extreme weather. Buffett said on CNBC Monday that he hasn’t made any change in the way he calculates the likelihood of a catastrophe …

Berkshire’s Specialty Insurer to Sell Business-Crisis Coverage

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will begin selling coverage through its specialty insurance unit to businesses to help manage costs of responding to reputation-damaging events. The new coverage provides as much as $100,000 to hire a crisis-management consulting firm to …

S&P Cuts Berkshire Hathaway Rating by One Notch to ‘AA’

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Thursday cut its rating on Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the insurance and industrial conglomerate controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, by one notch, citing the company’s reliance on its insurance operations for dividend income. …