Berkshire Hathaway well-positioned to absorb huge cat losses: Buffett.(sales and earnings)

Business Insurance, May, 2006

Byline: MARK A. HOFMANN OMAHA, Neb.-Berkshire Hathaway Inc. could "comfortably pay'' losses stemming from a catastrophic event four times the size of last year's Hurricane Katrina, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett told shareholders at the company's annual meeting earlier this month.

But much of the insurance industry would be badly hurt by such an event, which could cause up to $240 billion in insured damage, said Mr. Buffett. Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, which owns General Reinsurance Corp. and Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, would bear about 4% of the industrywide losses, he said. Mr. Buffett's assessment came only hours after Berkshire Hathaway released its results for the first three months of 2006. According to the company, Gen Re...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.