BLAME IT ON BUFFETT: Newspaper's fund takes hit;Investment in Berkshire Hathaway stock was a loser last year for The Washington Post Co.'s pension plan.

Pensions & Investments, May, 2000 by Anand, Vineeta

WASHINGTON -- Blame it on Warren Buffett. The Washington Post Co.'s pension fund lost $175 million last year, posting a -13% return on its assets, in no small measure because a significant portion of its equity investments are in Berkshire Hathaway Inc., run by Mr. Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway stock returned 0.5% last year, compared with a 21% return for the S&P 500 index.

That loss shrank the pension fund's assets to $1.1 billion at the end of 1999 from $1.3 billion at the beginning of the year. Also to blame for the pension fund's poor performance are its investments in other financial and insurance companies, industries that lagged last year. The pension fund's losses came in a year when many investors earned stratospheric returns from holdings in...

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