Buffett puts everything into Berkshire Hathaway

We now come to a milestone in the career of Warren Buffett. He is worth about £100m in the mid-1970s, but his funds are spread between investment vehicles. Some is in a personal portfolio, some in Berkshire Hathaway, some in Diversified and some in Blue Chip Stamps. To confuse things even further these organisation held shares in each other. And each had its own collection of outside shareholders, with their individual interests.

This and the next Newsletter tell the story of the consolidation when, after over 30 years of investing, Buffett was pushed to bring clarity to the ownership structure.

(Subscribers to my Newsletter can read all of the Buffett story from the beginning (about 250 pages in book form). Simply put “Buffett” in the search bar).

The tangle

In the mid-1970s Buffett’s direct shareholdings and the cross-holdings of the various companies changed from time to time, but the broad picture remained much the same until The Great Consolidation came about.

To express precise percentages would only confuse. So, given the state of flux of holdings during those three or four years, I’ve greatly simplified to provide only very rough fractions owned by each party in the diagram.

The authorities take an interest

In 1974 the Securities and Exchange Commission noticed the Wesco dealings. They were concerned that Buffett and Munger owned shares in Blue Chip, both directly and via Diversified Retailing. Also Buffett influenced ………To read the rest of this article, and more like it, subscribe to my premium newsletter Deep Value Shares – click here http://newsletters.advfn.com/deepvalueshares/subscribe-1

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