Warren Buffett’s company reported a US$1.5 billion first-quarter loss as it wrote down its ConocoPhillips investment.
That and unrealized derivative losses helped drag Berkshire Hathaway’s results below last year’s roughly US$900 million profit.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc said on Friday it recorded a loss of US$990 per share in the first quarter, down from the US$607 net income per Class A share reported in the same period a year ago.
This was Berkshire’s first quarterly loss since the third quarter of 2001 when the company suffered large insurance losses as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Buffett already acknowledged a mistake in last year’s purchase of a large amount of ConocoPhillips stock when oil and gas prices were near their peak.
Berkshire says it sold 13.7 million of its 79.9 million shares of ConocoPhillips during the first quarter to generate a loss that can offset past capital gains taxes.
Berkshire’s revenue fell 9.5 percent in the quarter, to US$22.8 billion from last year’s US$25.2 billion.
Berkshire officials say the company’s operating earnings are a better measure of how the company is performing in any given period because those figures exclude derivatives and investment gains or losses. Berkshire reported US$1.71 billion in operating earnings in this year’s first quarter, which was down nearly 12 percent from US$1.93 billion in operating earnings a year earlier.
Berkshire owns more than 60 subsidiaries including insurance, clothing, furniture and candy companies, restaurants, natural gas and corporate jet firms. Berkshire also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co and Wells Fargo & Co.
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