Warren Buffett News

Buffett’s Gen Re to Exit Operations at 6 Locations, Amid Global Reorganization

Gen Re, one of the giant reinsurance businesses at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said it’s exiting property and casualty operations at six smaller locations amid a global reorganization. The reinsurer said Thursday that it plans to shutter operations in …

China’s Fosun Scraps Plan to Buy Israel’s Phoenix, Vowing More Prudent Strategy

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd.’s deal to acquire Israeli insurer Phoenix Holdings Ltd. for more than $460 million has unraveled, the firm’s second withdrawn overseas purchase in the past two months as it pledges a more prudent investment strategy. Fosun, …

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting to Air Live on Yahoo

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. plans to webcast its annual meeting for the first time, allowing the largest U.S. shareholder gathering to reach a global audience through Yahoo Inc.’s finance page. Viewers will be able to watch Buffett, Berkshire’s 85-year-old …

Chinese Industrial Firms Will Lead Insurance M&A in 2016, to Grow Beyond Asia

China’s biggest industrial companies want to buy insurers in 2016 as they seek to grow outside Asia as the domestic economy slows and falling insurance rates prompt more firms to do deals, according to Willis Towers Watson Plc. “We’ve been …

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Cuts Munich Re Stake to 4.6%

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. further reduced its stake in Munich Re as the billionaire investor re-evaluates the attractiveness of the reinsurance market. The holding was trimmed to 4.6 percent from 9.7 percent, Munich Re said in a filing Friday. …

Why Australia’s IAG Decided to Halt China Expansion Plans

When Insurance Australia Group, the country’s largest general insurer, announced ambitious plans in June to ramp up its business in Mainland China, several institutional investors including Jason Kim were seriously concerned. Kim, a portfolio manager at Nikko Asset Management which …

Update: Buffett Cuts Munich Re Shareholding, Responds to Reinsurance Slump

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has cut its stake in Munich Re after lamenting a slump in the reinsurance business. Berkshire’s holding was lowered to 9.7 percent from about 12 percent, Munich Re said in a statement Tuesday, citing a …

Fosun’s Guo to Slow Down Global Buying Spree of Insurers, Banks

Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang, who calls himself a student of Warren Buffett, says he will slow down a global buying spree over the next two years after his Fosun Group snapped up insurers, banks and fashion companies at home and …

Third Point Re: ‘It’s Tough Out There’ with Ongoing Influx of Capital Market Capacity

Executives at Dan Loeb’s reinsurer, which is headed for its second-straight annual decline in New York trading, told investors not to count on a quick rebound in the industry as competition intensifies. “It’s tough out there,” Robert Bredahl, Third Point …

A.M. Best: Reinsurance Sector Faces New Reality Shaped by Abundant Capacity

The reinsurance market is operating in a new reality of abundant capacity from traditional and alternative sources, low interest rates and thinner reinsurance margins, driven by intense competition against shrinking demand for reinsurance cover, according to A.M. Best’s annual special …