To: philv who wrote (515 ) 2/4/1998 2:53:00 AM From: Postman Respond to of 8010
Full Warren Buffet article: February 3, 1998 FOCUS-Buffett buys large stake of world silver supply NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor known for his Midas touch, has turned to silver. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corp., said in an unusual news release Tuesday that his corporation has purchased 129.7 million ounces of silver, worth roughly $900 million, in the past six months. That much silver represents more than 20 percent of the world's estimated silver supply at the end of 1997, according to CPM Group, a metals market consulting firm in New York. The statement from Buffett came as silver was climbing to its highest prices in nine years and suggestions of manipulation roiled the market. Berkshire, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said it began purchasing silver July 25 and made its last purchase Jan. 12. Buffett's firm, which rarely discloses its investment strategies, made the statement "because of recent price movements in the silver market and because Berkshire Hathaway has received inquiries about its ownership of the metal." "Last summer, Mr. Buffett and Mr. (Charlie Munger), vice chairman of Berkshire, concluded that equilibrium between supply and demand was only likely to be established by a somewhat higher price," the statement said. Berkshire said it normally would have published the information in its annual report. It said at the purchase price, the silver represents less than 2 percent of its investment portfolio. Last week, New York law firm Lovell and Stewart filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York alleging the silver market was being manipulated by commodities trading firm Phibro Inc. and others. The suit alleged that the buyers were removing silver from warehouses that hold supplies that can be registered for delivery against futures contracts at the Commodity Exchange and shipping them to London. The London silver trading community does not make storage statistics public, making it difficult to determine what quantity of silver is available to the world market. Phibro's legal counsel denied the allegations and Patrick Thompson, president of the New York Mercantile Exchange, said last Friday there was "absolutely no basis" for the allegations that the silver market was being manipulated. Silver is traded at the Commodity Exchange, which is a division of the Mercantile Exchange. COMEX warehouse silver stocks fell another 327,101 ounces in data released on Monday to a 12-year low of 103,778,089 ounces. Stocks have fallen by more than seven million ounces in the past two weeks and nearly 50 percent in the past year. In the statement, Berkshire said it currently had no plans to buy or sell silver. Berkshire is a leading shareholder in financial services giant Travelers Group Inc., which purchased Phibro's parent company, Salomon Brothers, last autumn in a deal valued at $9 billion. Buffett's links to Salomon stretch back more than a decade. In 1987, Berkshire bought $700 million worth of Salomon preferred stock to help the investment house fend off an unwanted takeover bid from Revlon Inc.'s Ronald Perelman. As the company's largest shareholder, Buffett briefly stepped in to run Salomon in the early 1990s in the wake of a bond trading scandal at the firm. Buffett, known as "the oracle of Omaha," is famed for his homespun approach to investing in companies. Berkshire Hathaway holds stakes in Coca-Cola Co., American Express Co., Walt Disney Co., Gillette Co., McDonald's Corp. and owns See's Candies and Dairy Queen.