Berkshire shares ends in red as US threatens to sue unit over wildfire costs
Berkshire Hathaway's shares closed down by more than 2% on Monday, slowing its march to $1 trillion market value on investor worries after the U.S. government warned of a lawsuit against its power company, PacifiCorp.
Berkshire disclosed the risk of a lawsuit against its unit over its alleged failure to cover $356 million in costs associated with the 2020 Slater wildfire in southern Oregon and northern California.
The investment conglomerate had warned on Saturday that the parent of PacifiCorp and one of Berkshire's biggest businesses outside insurance, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, was under pressure.
«It will be many years until we know the final tally from BHE's forest-fire losses and can intelligently make decisions about the desirability of future investments in vulnerable western states,» Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders.
He also toned down expectations for Berkshire's share price, saying it did not have many lucrative investment opportunities left, while reassuring investors that the biggest financial firm by market value was «built to last».
The 93-year-old investing legend told shareholders that Berkshire would perform slightly better than the «average American corporation», but anything beyond that is «wishful thinking», even though it had a cash pile of $167.6 billion.
«There remain only a handful of companies in this country capable of truly moving the needle at Berkshire, and they have been endlessly picked over by us and by others… All in all, we have no possibility of eye-popping
