Berkshire Hathaway posts record $50B loss as virus causes pain

new york — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, posting a record quarterly net loss of nearly $50 billion on Saturday and saying performance is suffering in several major operating businesses.

Berkshire said most of its more than 90 businesses have faced “relatively minor to severe” negative effects from Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, with revenue slowing considerably in April even at businesses deemed “essential”. The BNSF railroad saw shipping volumes fall, Geico set aside money for car insurance premiums it doesn’t expect to collect, and some businesses cut wages and furloughed workers. Retailers such as See’s Candies and the Nebraska Furniture Mart closed stores.

Buffett also allowed Berkshire’s cash stake to rise to a record $137.3 billion from $128 billion at the end of 2019.

That reflected the 89-year-old billionaire’s inability to make large, “elephant” size acquisitions, now in its fifth year, and caution in buying more stocks. Berkshire repurchased $1.7 billion of its own stock.

Berkshire’s first-quarter net loss totalled $49.75 billion, or $30,653 per Class A share, reflecting $54.52 billion of losses from investments, mainly common stocks. A year earlier, net earnings totalled $21.66 billion, or $13,209 per share.

An accounting rule requires Berkshire to report unrealised stock losses and gains with earnings. This causes huge swings in Berkshire’s net results that Buffett considers meaningless.

Quarterly operating profit, which Buffett considers a better performance measure, rose 6 per cent to $5.87 billion, or about $3,624 per Class A share, from $5.56 billion, or about $3,388 per share.

Year-earlier results reflected a charge on investments linked to what prosecutors called a fraud at a solar company. Operating profit at Berkshire’s business units fell 3 per cent, with lower profit from BNSF, utilities and energy, and manufacturing, service and retailing businesses. Vice-chairman Charlie Munger told The Wall

Street Journal last month that a few small Berkshire businesses might close altogether.

Investors have been disappointed with Berkshire, whose stock price lagged the Standard & Poor’s 500 by more than 20 percentage points in 2019, including dividends. While Buffett has said Berkshire’s own stock would outperform in down markets, it hasn’t this year. Through Friday, its shares were down 19 per cent in 2020, compared with a 12 per cent drop in the S&P 500. —