Berkshire Hathaway Q3 net slips 77% $1.06 bn

Billionaire Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway Inc has posted a 76.78 per cent decline in net earnings at $ 1.06 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, on falling returns in insurance businesses and investment losses.

The company had a net earnings of $4.55 billion in the same quarter last year, Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement.

This is reportedly the longest streak of quarterly declines in at least 13 years, on falling returns at insurance businesses and investment losses.

"The timing and magnitude of catastrophe losses incurred by insurance subsidiaries and the estimation error inherent to the process of determining liabilities for unpaid losses of insurance subsidiaries can be relatively more significant to results of interim periods than to results for a full year," it said.

The derivatives losses of the company have widened for the third quarter to $1.26 billion as against $122 million in the corresponding period a year ago.

For the nine months ended September 30, Berkshire Hathaway has posted net earnings of $4.87 billion, a 52.49 per cent decline from $10.26 billion last year.

On October 1, Berkshire invested five billion dollar in Goldman Sachs' perpetual preferred stock. The preferred stock has a stated dividend rate of 10 per cent and is callable at any time at a 10 per cent premium.

Further, On October 16, Berkshire invested $3 billion in General Electric Company's perpetual preferred stock. The preferred stock has a stated dividend rate of 10 per cent and is callable after three years at a 10 per cent premium.