( Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is being struck hard by the coronavirus pandemic, publishing a record quarterly net loss of nearly $50 billion on Saturday and saying efficiency is suffering in a number of significant operating businesses.
FILE PHOTO: Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, stops briefly while playing bridge as part of the business yearly meeting weekend in Omaha, Nebraska U.S. May 6,2018 REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
Berkshire stated the majority of its more than 90 companies are facing “relatively minor to extreme” unfavorable effects from COVID-19, the illness triggered by the novel coronavirus and now penalizing the international economy, with revenue slowing significantly in April even at organisations deemed “important.”
The BNSF railway saw shipping volumes of customer products and coal fall, while Geico reserved cash for vehicle insurance premiums it no longer expects to gather. Some services cut salaries and furloughed employees, and merchants such as See’s Candies and the Nebraska Furniture Mart closed stores.
Buffett likewise allowed Berkshire’s cash stake to increase to a record $1373 billion from $128 billion at the end of2019
That reflected the 89- year-old billionaire’s inability to make big, “elephant” size acquisitions for his Omaha, Nebraska-based cong