Friday, November 30, 2012

Warren Watch: Berkshire Moves Into Spain With CaixaBank Reinsurance Deal



According to the NY Times’ Dealbook: Warren E. Buffett has generally shied away from dipping his toe into southern Europe. But Mr. Buffett is nothing if not full of surprises.  His investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, agreed on Friday to pay $780.8 million to claim the future cash flows of a life insurance portfolio held by CaixaBank, a major Spanish lender.

CaixaBank, which will continue to service the portfolio, will claim a pretax profit of about $680 million.  With the reinsurance deal, Mr. Buffett and his sizable insurance team are betting that at least one Spanish firm is in good financial shape, even as its home country remains on shakier economic ground.

He has repeatedly offered a dour assessment of Europe since the onset of its sovereign debt crisis, calling it a serious problem with few obvious solutions….

Read all about it at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/berkshire-moves-into-spain-with-caixabank-reinsurance-deal/

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