Berkshire profit soars as insurance claims fall

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., billionaire Warren Buffett’s conglomerate, yesterday said its quarterly operating profit nearly doubled as its insurance business dodged hurricanes and benefited from lower taxes.

The strong result gives Buffett more cash to deploy even as the bargain hunter resorted to buying back nearly $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in his own company’s stock in the latest quarter.

Operating profit in the third quarter doubled to $6.88 billion from $3.44 billion a year earlier, and higher than the $6.11 billion expected by Wall Street, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Helping the company’s massive insurance operations were lower estimated liabilities from property and casualty insurance in prior years and lower taxes. The year prior included major losses due to three US hurricanes. Insurance underwriting income was $441 million, compared to a $1.4 billion loss in the year-ago period. Thirdquarter net income rose more than 355 per cent to $18.5 billion, Berkshire said.