Last week, Warren Buffett provided his 31st letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Buffett's first letter, written in 1977, two years before I was born, described a company with operating earnings of $21.9 million and an investment portfolio worth $181 million. In 2007, Berkshire provided $20.2 billion of operating earnings and held an investment portfolio worth $75 billion. Not bad, Mr. Buffett.
Buffett's annual letters are insightful and relevant, and I encourage anyone interested in business, investing, or just a good 20 minute read to download the most recent report here.
One interesting story in this year's letter describes the outcome of Berkshire's investment in PetroChina, the Chinese oil and gas company. In 2002/2003, Berkshire invested $488 million in the company and in 2007 sold it's stake for $4 billion. Again, not a bad job. But, with heafty gains come heafty taxes. Berkshire paid the IRS $1.2 billion in taxes on this gain, which paid ALL costs of running the U.S. government for about four hours. Wow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment