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Authors: Super UserLegendary investor Warren Buffett on Saturday said his phone has not been ringing with good deals.
Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway has been sitting on a heap of idle cash and short-term treasury bills worth $116 billion.
“Cheap money has been fuelling mergers and acquisitions and Berkshire has stayed away largely of late.
Berkshire, though, remains a very good home for companies, and we have the money to do the deals.
Leveraged low-cost money has made the deal market pricey,” Buffett told shareholders at Berkshire’s annual general meeting.
In a lighter vein, he hinted that he might look to acquire something in China soon.
“This August, I will be 88 and 8 is a good number in China.
Hopefully, we get a good acquisition there this year,” he said.
Commenting on US-China trade war, Buffett said the two nations are two great superpowers of the world, economically and in otherwise, for a long, long time.
“We will have disagreements, but the benefits are huge and the world is dependent on that relationship.
We cannot sacrifice world prosperity to these differences” Buffett said.
US exports and imports were both 5 per cent of GDP in 1971 and 11.50 per cent and 14.50 per cent as of now, which shows a 3 per cent gap.
“Both China and US are smart enough to know how to handle the relationship,” Buffett said.
Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday reported an unusual net loss for the March quarter as a result of an accounting change that Buffett had warned would produce ‘wild’ but, in his view, meaningless swings in earnings.
Berkshire ended a long stretch of disappointing operating performance, posting record operating profit as the insurance vertical rebounded from a difficult quarter while economic growth bolstered results in railroad, industrial and consumer businesses.
