Warren Buffett's farewell letter to his shareholders.
As usual, a treasure trove of humility, advice, wisdom and humor.
-enjoy.
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 10, 2025
Omaha, NE (BRK.A; BRK.B) –
Today, Warren E. Buffett converted 1,800 A shares into 2,700,000 B shares in order to give these B
shares to four family foundations: 1,500,000 shares to The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and
400,000 shares to each of The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo
Foundation. These donations have been delivered today.
Mr. Buffett’s comments to his fellow shareholders follow:
* * * * * * * * * * * *
To My Fellow Shareholders:
I will no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual
meeting. As the British would say, I’m “going quiet.”
Sort of.
Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend. He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an
honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure.
I will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving
message. Berkshire’s individual shareholders are a very special group who are unusually generous in
sharing their gains with others less fortunate. I enjoy the chance to keep in touch with you. Indulge
me this year as I first reminisce a bit. After that, I will discuss the plans for distribution of my
Berkshire shares. Finally, I will offer a few business and personal observations.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m grateful and surprised by my luck in being alive at 95.
When I was young, this outcome did not look like a good bet. Early on, I nearly died.
It was 1938 and Omaha hospitals were then thought of by its citizens as either Catholic or
Protestant, a classification that seemed natural at the time.
Our family doctor, Harley Hotz, was a friendly Catholic who made house calls toting a black
bag. Dr. Hotz called me Skipper and never charged much for his visits. When I experienced a bad
bellyache in 1938, Dr. Hotz came by and, after probing a bit, told me I would be OK in the morning.
He then went home, had dinner and played a little bridge. Dr. Hotz couldn’t, however, get my
somewhat peculiar symptoms out of his mind and later that night he dispatched me to St. Catherine’s
Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. During the next three weeks, I felt like I was in a nunnery,
and began enjoying my new “podium.” I liked to talk – yes, even then – and the nuns embraced me.
To top things off, Miss Madsen, my third-grade teacher, told my 30 classmates to each write
me a letter. I probably threw away the letters from the boys but read and reread those from the girls;
hospitalization had its rewards.
The highlight of my recovery – which actually was dicey for much of the first week – was a
gift from my wonderful Aunt Edie. She brought me a very professional-looking fingerprinting set,
and I promptly fingerprinted all of my attending nuns. (I was probably the first Protestant kid they
had seen at St. Catherine’s and they didn’t know what to expect.)
My theory – totally nutty, of course – was that someday a nun would go bad and the FBI
would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns. The FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, had
become revered by Americans in the 1930s, and I envisioned Mr. Hoover, himself, coming to Omaha
to inspect my invaluable collection. I further fantasized that J. Edgar and I would quickly identify
and apprehend the wayward nun. National fame seemed certain.
Obviously, my fantasy never materialized. But, ironically, some years later it became clear
that I should have fingerprinted J. Edgar himself as he became disgraced for misusing his post.
Well, that was Omaha in the 1930s, when a sled, a bicycle, a baseball glove and an electric
train were coveted by me and my friends. Let’s look at a few other kids from that era, who grew up
very nearby and greatly influenced my life but of whom I was for long unaware.
I’ll begin with Charlie Munger, my best pal for 64 years. In the 1930s, Charlie lived a block
away from the house I have owned and occupied since 1958.
Early on, I missed befriending Charlie by a whisker. Charlie, 6 ⅔ years older than I, worked
in the summer of 1940 at my grandfather’s grocery store, earning $2 for a 10-hour day. (Thrift runs
deep in Buffett blood.) The following year I did similar work at the store, but I never met Charlie
until 1959 when he was 35 and I was 28.
After serving in World War II, Charlie graduated from Harvard Law and then moved
permanently to California. Charlie, however, forever talked of his early years in Omaha as formative.
For more than 60 years, Charlie had a huge impact on me and could not have been a better teacher
and protective “big brother.” We had differences but never had an argument. “I told you so” was not
in his vocabulary.
In 1958, I bought my first and only home. Of course, it was in Omaha, located about two
miles from where I grew up (loosely defined), less than two blocks from my in-laws, about six blocks
from the Buffett grocery store and a 6-7-minute drive from the office building where I have worked
for 64 years.
Let’s move on to another Omahan, Stan Lipsey. Stan sold the Omaha Sun Newspapers
(weeklies) to Berkshire in 1968 and a decade later moved to Buffalo at my request. The Buffalo
Evening News, owned by a Berkshire affiliate, was then locked in a battle to the death with its
morning competitor who published Buffalo’s only Sunday paper. And we were losing.
Stan eventually built our new Sunday product, and for some years our paper – formerly
hemorrhaging cash – earned over 100% annually (pre-tax) on our $33 million investment. This was
important money to Berkshire in the early 1980s.
Stan grew up about five blocks from my home. One of Stan’s neighbors was Walter Scott, Jr.
Walter, you will remember, brought MidAmerican Energy to Berkshire in 1999. He was also a valued
Berkshire director until his death in 2021 and a very close friend. Walter was Nebraska’s
philanthropic leader for decades and both Omaha and the state carries his imprint.
Walter attended Benson High School, which I was scheduled to attend as well – until my dad
surprised everyone in 1942 by beating a four-term incumbent in a Congressional race. Life is full of
surprises.
Wait, there’s more.
In 1959, Don Keough and his young family lived in a home located directly across the street
from my house and about 100 yards away from where the Munger family had lived. Don was then a
coffee salesman but was destined to become president of Coca-Cola as well as a devoted director of
Berkshire.
When I met Don, he was earning $12,000 a year while he and his wife Mickie were raising
five children, all destined for Catholic schools (with tuition requirements).
Our families became fast friends. Don came from a farm in northwest Iowa and graduated
from Omaha’s Creighton University. Early on, he married Mickie, an Omaha girl. After joining Coke,
Don went on to become legendary around the globe.
In 1985, when Don was president of Coke, the company launched its ill-fated New Coke.
Don made a famous speech in which he apologized to the public and reinstated “Old” Coke. This
change of heart took place after Don explained that Coke incoming mail addressed to “Supreme
Idiot” was promptly delivered to his desk. His “withdrawal” speech is a classic and can be viewed on
YouTube. He cheerfully acknowledged that, in truth, the Coca-Cola product belonged to the public
and not to the company. Sales subsequently soared.
You can watch Don on CharlieRose.com in a wonderful interview. (Tom Murphy and Kay
Graham have a couple of gems as well.) Like Charlie Munger, Don forever remained a Midwestern
boy, enthusiastic, friendly and American to the core.
Finally, Ajit Jain, born and raised in India, as well as Greg Abel, our Canadian CEO-to-be,
each lived in Omaha for several years late in the 20th Century. Indeed, in the 1990s, Greg lived only a
few blocks away from me on Farnam Street, though we never met at the time.
Can it be that there is some magic ingredient in Omaha’s water?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I lived a few teenage years in Washington, DC (when my dad was in Congress) and in 1954 I
took what I thought would be a permanent job in Manhattan. There I was treated wonderfully by Ben
Graham and Jerry Newman and made many life-long friends. New York had unique assets – and still
does. Nevertheless, in 1956, after only 1½ years, I returned to Omaha, never to wander again.
Subsequently, my three children, as well as several grandchildren, were raised in Omaha. My
children always attended public schools (graduating from the same high school that educated my dad
(class of 1921), my first wife, Susie (class of 1950) as well as Charlie, Stan Lipsey, Irv and Ron
Blumkin, who were key to growing Nebraska Furniture Mart, and Jack Ringwalt (class of 1923),
who founded National Indemnity and sold it to Berkshire in 1967 where it became the base upon
which our huge P/C operation was constructed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Our country has many great companies, great schools, great medical facilities and each
definitely has its own special advantages along with talented people. But I feel very lucky to have
had the good fortune to make many lifelong friends, to meet both of my wives, to receive a great start
in education at public schools, to meet many interesting and friendly adult Omahans when I was very
young, and to make a wide variety of friends in the Nebraska National Guard. In short, Nebraska has
been home.
Looking back I feel that both Berkshire and I did better because of our base in Omaha than if
I had resided anywhere else. The center of the United States was a very good place to be born, to
raise a family, and to build a business. Through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Now let’s move on to my advanced age. My genes haven’t been particularly helpful – the
family’s all-time record for longevity (admittedly family records get fuzzy as you work backwards)
was 92 until I came along. But I have had wise, friendly and dedicated Omaha doctors, starting with
Harley Hotz, and continuing to this day. At least three times, my life has been saved, each with
doctors based within a few miles from my home. (I have given up fingerprinting nurses, however.
You can get away with many eccentricities at 95 . . . . . but there are limits.)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Those who reach old age need a huge dose of good luck, daily escaping banana peels, natural
disasters, drunk or distracted drivers, lightning strikes, you name it.
But Lady Luck is fickle and – no other term fits – wildly unfair. In many cases, our leaders
and the rich have received far more than their share of luck – which, too often, the recipients prefer
not to acknowledge. Dynastic inheritors have achieved lifetime financial independence the moment
they emerged from the womb, while others have arrived, facing a hell-hole during their early life or,
worse, disabling physical or mental infirmities that rob them of what I have taken for granted. In
many heavily-populated parts of the world, I would likely have had a miserable life and my sisters
would have had one even worse.
I was born in 1930 healthy, reasonably intelligent, white, male and in America. Wow! Thank
you, Lady Luck. My sisters had equal intelligence and better personalities than I but faced a much
different outlook. Lady Luck continued to drop by during much of my life, but she has better things
to do than work with those in their 90s. Luck has its limits.
Father Time, to the contrary, now finds me more interesting as I age. And he is undefeated;
for him, everyone ends up on his score card as “wins.” When balance, sight, hearing and memory are
all on a persistently downward slope, you know Father Time is in the neighborhood.
I was late in becoming old – its onset materially varies – but once it appears, it is not to be
denied.
To my surprise, I generally feel good. Though I move slowly and read with increasing
difficulty, I am at the office five days a week where I work with wonderful people. Occasionally, I
get a useful idea or am approached with an offer we might not otherwise have received. Because of
Berkshire’s size and because of market levels, ideas are few – but not zero.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
My unexpected longevity, however, has unavoidable consequences of major importance to my
family and the achievement of my charitable objectives.
Let’s explore them.
What Comes Next
My children are all above normal retirement age, having reached 72, 70 and 67. It would be a
mistake to wager that all three – now at their peak in many respects – will enjoy my exceptional luck
in delayed aging. To improve the probability that they will dispose of what will essentially be my
entire estate before alternate trustees replace them, I need to step up the pace of lifetime gifts to their
three foundations. My children are now at their prime in respect to experience and wisdom but have
yet to enter old age. That “honeymoon” period will not last forever.
Fortunately, a course correction is easy to execute. There is, however, one additional factor to
consider: I would like to keep a significant amount of “A” shares until Berkshire shareholders
develop the comfort with Greg that Charlie and I long enjoyed. That level of confidence shouldn’t
take long. My children are already 100% behind Greg as are the Berkshire directors.
All three children now have the maturity, brains, energy and instincts to disburse a large
fortune. They will also have the advantage of being above ground when I am long gone and, if
necessary, can adopt policies both anticipatory and reactive to federal tax policies or other
developments affecting philanthropy. They may well need to adapt to a significantly changing world
around them. Ruling from the grave does not have a great record, and I have never had an urge to do
so.
Fortunately, all three children received a dominant dosage of their genes from their mother.
As the decades have passed, I have also become a better model for their thinking and behavior. I will
never, however, achieve parity with their mother.
My children have three alternate trustees in case of any premature deaths or disabilities. The
alternates are not ranked or tied to a specific child. All three are exceptional humans and wise in the
ways of the world. They have no conflicting motives.
I have assured my children that they do not need to perform miracles nor fear failures or
disappointments. These are inevitable, and I have made my share. They simply need to improve
somewhat upon what generally is achieved by government activities and/or private philanthropy,
recognizing these other methods of redistribution of wealth have shortcomings as well.
Early on, I contemplated various grand philanthropic plans. Though I was stubborn, these did
not prove feasible. During my many years, I’ve also watched ill-conceived wealth transfers by
political hacks, dynastic choices and, yes, inept or quirky philanthropists.
If my children simply do a decent job, they can be certain that their mother and I would be
pleased. Their instincts are good and they each have had years of practice with very small sums
initially that have been irregularly increased to more than $500 million annually.
All three like working long hours to help others, each in their own way.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The acceleration of my lifetime gifts to my children’s foundations in no way reflects any
change in my views about Berkshire’s prospects. Greg Abel has more than met the high expectations
I had for him when I first thought he should be Berkshire’s next CEO. He understands many of our
businesses and personnel far better than I now do, and he is a very fast learner about matters many
CEOs don’t even consider. I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member
of government – you name it – that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine.
Greg understands, for example, far more about both the upside potential and the dangers of
our P/C insurance business than do a great many long-time P/C executives. My hope is that his health
remains good for several decades. With a little luck, Berkshire should require only five or six CEOs
over the next century. It should particularly avoid those whose goal is to retire at 65, to become lookat-
me rich or to initiate a dynasty.
One unpleasant reality: Occasionally, a wonderful and loyal CEO of the parent or a
subsidiary will succumb to dementia, Alzheimer’s or another debilitating and long-term disease.
Charlie and I encountered this problem several times and failed to act. This failure can be a
huge mistake. The Board must be alert to this possibility at the CEO level and the CEO must be alert
to the possibility at subsidiaries. This is easier said than done; I could cite a few examples from the
past at major companies. Directors should be alert and speak up is all that I can advise.
During my lifetime, reformers sought to embarrass CEOs by requiring the disclosure of the
compensation of the boss compared to what was being paid to the average employee. Proxy
statements promptly ballooned to 100-plus pages compared to 20 or less earlier.
But the good intentions didn’t work; instead they backfired. Based on the majority of my
observations – the CEO of company “A” looked at his competitor at company “B” and subtly
conveyed to his board that he should be worth more. Of course, he also boosted the pay of directors
and was careful who he placed on the compensation committee. The new rules produced envy, not
moderation.
The ratcheting took on a life of its own. What often bothers very wealthy CEOs – they are
human, after all – is that other CEOs are getting even richer. Envy and greed walk hand in hand. And
what consultant ever recommended a serious cut in CEO compensation or board payments?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
In aggregate, Berkshire’s businesses have moderately better-than-average prospects, led by a
few non-correlated and sizable gems. However, a decade or two from now, there will be many
companies that have done better than Berkshire; our size takes its toll.
Berkshire has less chance of a devastating disaster than any business I know. And, Berkshire
has a more shareholder-conscious management and board than almost any company with which I am
familiar (and I’ve seen a lot). Finally, Berkshire will always be managed in a manner that will make
its existence an asset to the United States and eschew activities that would lead it to become a
supplicant. Over time, our managers should grow quite wealthy – they have important
responsibilities – but do not have the desire for dynastic or look-at-me wealth.
Our stock price will move capriciously, occasionally falling 50% or so as has happened three
times in 60 years under present management. Don’t despair; America will come back and so will
Berkshire shares.
A Few Final Thoughts
One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of
my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes – learn at least a little
from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can
start with Tom Murphy; he was the best.
Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who – reportedly – read his own obituary
that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at
what he read and realized he should change his behavior.
Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and
live the life to deserve it.
Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts
of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you
help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to
beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.
I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes but
also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long
way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the
Chairman.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; it’s never too late to
change. Remember to thank America for maximizing your opportunities. But it is – inevitably –
capricious and sometimes venal in distributing its rewards.
Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you
can always be better.
About Berkshire
Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including insurance and
reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, manufacturing, services and retailing.
Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A
and BRK.B.
– End –
Contact
Marc D. Hamburg
402-346-1400
Buffett on tariffs
From the article:
Asked about how tariffs will affect the economy, Buffett stated, "Tariffs are actually, we've had a lot of experience with them. They're an act of war, to some degree."
I asked, "How do you think tariffs will impact inflation?"
"Over time, they are a tax on goods. I mean, the Tooth Fairy doesn't pay 'em!" he laughed. "And then what? You always have to ask that question in economics. You always say, 'And then what?'"
Another Buffett banger I saw the other day:
Discipline isn’t just for big decisions—it’s built in the small ones. Warren Buffett understood this better than anyone.
“Warren (Buffett) was playing golf at Pebble Beach with Charlie Munger (Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman), Jack Byrne (Fireman’s Fund Chairman), and another person. One of them proposed. “Warren, if you shoot a hole-in-one on this 18-hole course, we’ll give you U$10,000. If you don’t shoot a hole-in-one, you owe us U$10”. Warren thought about it and said, “I’m not taking the bet.” The others said, “Why don’t you? The most you can lose is U$10. You can make U$10,000.” Warren replied, “If you are not disciplined in the little things, you won’t be disciplined in the big things.”
Source: Interview with Walter Schloss carried in Outstanding Investor Digest (June 23rd, 1989)
At first I laughed at this and said I would take that bet as well - the downside is limited and the upside (asymmetric returns) far outweighs what I could potentially lose. Then I remembered my golfing ability and the likelihood of me actually having a hole-in-one is next to 0 and I would essentially be giving away $10 before I even teed off.
There are various versions of this, but the general idea is the same (and a good one).
Reminds me of Munger's line: "If you can't handle two or three market drops of over 50% in a century, you're not cut out for investing. You'll only achieve relatively mediocre investment returns compared to those who can rationally handle market fluctuations."
Well the US market on Monday 5 August chucked quite a few opportunities along the way for my US paper trade account.
I literally put all the money into work on Monday with the popular ones and a few specs and ones with a good chart.
For the technicals, it looks like a breakaway gap? I did this before with AZS and worked quite well.
Apparently this one popped due to positive earnings guidance which surprised analysts that forecasted negative earnings so bought a small amount in my USD real money account (which happens to be quite small).
Got to try and study the US market more.
But it is hard to say if there will be another unwind on the horizon as it happens when you least expect it.
Second week on the US Paper trading account. Beginner's luck?
It is easier buying the dip when it is imaginary money. And I'm surprised by the amount of variety on the US market once you dig deeper.
Just FYI this account is for an assessment task, so I can't reveal everything till the trading period is over.
But I will say that I bought Amazon and Facebook which both had pretty good multiples compared to some of the stuff on the ASX.
Amazon trades 41x versus WES 33x. But you get Cloud and AI tech as a bonus so therefore it is "cheap" compared to WES.
Facebook trades 24x so I wonder why that Cadence guy was so dumb to not buy more (or even sell as mentioned before)
As a spec medical play I bought a small position in Corvus (the team behind Rituximab which is the adjunct kidney drug that CSL and DXB can't be bothered mentioning) but will take profit soon as it is one of "those stocks that trade on hype like DRO and CU6".
And finally Flex which is similar to IPD group but much bigger and more diversified.
Still have Omnicell here and in real life. In hindsight should have bought Flex instead.
The holdings have had bigger upside moves but equally bigger downside moves compared to the SP500 but overall I'm ahead and doing better than my real life one.
Will probably jink it now.... and Buffett will be right.
Current week without hyperdrive special broker lunches stock Corvus Pharmaceuticals. Would have been higher if I didn't sell.
One of the ESG stocks popped in with a 10%+ gain for the day which was highly unexpected as it was trending down and I did not really see much tailwinds in the business. They do measuring and diagnostics devices for various sectors so maybe similar to Codan???
So because of that one stock, I have jumped up to rank 9.
The ESG criteria is that we select stocks that have a ESG risk score below 9. So there is not much choice here
After initially opening higher on the jobs report (non farm payrolls 142k which was midpoint of 100k and 165k and unemployment 4.2%) the market took a dramatic turn and dumped!
I initially thought I made a mistake closing my paper trades early this week. Looks like I was right.
Bad news is not now good news for the market.
I still hold healthcare technology stock OMCL in my real account. For some reason that has been very stable even after suffering a few target downgrades on valuation concerns. I don't see any reason to change knowing they have finally gone back to profit in 1H and they still forecast FY profit My assumption is that analysts are still catching up on the story here.
Sold ARIS on earnings miss 8/8. Turned out to be a dumb move when ARIS upgraded the forward outlook. Jinxed by the early morning share price dump!
Bought XYLEM 14/8
Exited Corvus 16/8 on announcement of 300m shelf offering which includes 100m to Jefferies investment bank - looks like a future capital raising. Possibly another bad move as share price mooned a week after that. Now back to $4.
Exited Meta 26/8/2024 when insider selling by multiple board members (Zuck and co) snowballed during the week Reduced Uber to half when EU fined company on data protection breach
Added XYLEM 26/8
All Exited 5/09/2024
A rating downgrade on XYL from TD bank from buy to hold changed the XYL position from profit to slight loss and was the only losing position in the end. Cite cyclical concerns regarding water utility market. I'll need to research that a bit more. So poor move increasing XYL after selling UBER and META and my rank dived below 100 as a result.
XYL has fallen further since then. Doesn't bode well for EVS which also has water monitoring products..
Because I exited early, I have now outperformed the market. Proof you can beat it (if you have the resources time/tools/money etc)??? But I also think I had a bit of luck.
Managed to finish in the top 100 in the end, but no longer in the top 20.
Not a good week for global markets @edgescape -
In percentage terms, the Aussie market fell less than the rest of the world, however we have a Resources economy and many of our mining stocks are tanking, so I'd reckon a "correction" at some point wouldn't be out of the question, i.e. we could easily fall harder and faster than we have. Luckily our Big Banks (Financials - our largest industry sector on the ASX) are holding up very well -
It looks like we have a decent Health Care sector, but CSL makes up most of that, so take away CSL and it moves right down the list. Incidentally, there are just 5 other Aussie Health Care companies worth over $10 billion, RMD, FPH, COH, PME and SHL, and the largest of those 5, ResMed, @ A$23 billion, is less than one sixth of the market cap of CSL (@ A$147 billion). I would have thought PME was more software and services, but there you go.
Source: https://www.listcorp.com/asx/sectors/health-care
The ASX 200 was only down 0.97% last week, and remains close to all-time highs, being only -1.6% off its year high. So, nothing nasty here so far. And it's mostly the banks that are holding us up. Have a look at how our sectors performed over the past week:
Our two largest sectors are certainly diverging - Resources down -7% while Banks are up +2.6% over 5 trading days. And they've been rising for a while...
But back to resources. There is likely money to be made when that tide turns and metal prices head north - and that won't all happen at the same time clearly as different metals have different price drivers. The following graphs from Marcus Padley's MarcusToday Saturday newsletter (as are the graphs and tables above, except for the sector pie chart) display a fair bit about leverage. Firstly, Uranium:
Boss Energy looks like the best leverage to the uranium price, because the BOE SP moves up by more than the uranium price when the uranium price rises, and it falls by more than the uranium price when the uranium price falls - so... leverage. Interestingly, you would expect this sort of thing with a company with a decent debt-load, but BOE have zero net debt and are actually profitable (lately).
Boss Energy EARNINGS:_______________________Boss Energy R.O.E. (%)
Their latest company Presentation (Find it here: https://bossenergy.com/investors/asx-announcements) says: Boss has delivered two producing mines and has a market capital growth of $1.1B and zero debt.
A month ago on slide 4 of this D&D presso - https://bossenergy.com/images/documents/Diggers-and-Dealers-Presentation-2024.pdf - that number was higher, at $1.3B - which obviously refers simply to their market capitalisation not their available growth capital - strange wording. Their m/cap is now around the $1 billion mark, but they do have two producing mines, which is more than you can say for the vast majority of other uranium hopefulls that trade on the ASX. Not my area of specialty to be honest, so not holding, but if I wanted uranium exposure, looks like BOE might be worth a look.
Now to Sandfire vs the copper price, and Sandfire has outperformed, so not sure if that indicates they've run too hard or that the market is more bullish on the copper price being higher in future years and Sandfire (SFR) being very well placed to capitalise on that higher copper price.
WIRE is the Global X Copper Miners ETF, so an ETF of global copper miners, not a physical copper ETF, and that WIRE ETF got ahead of the copper price in that recent April to August period but has come back to it now. SFR however remains well above both of them.
It should be noted that copper remains uncontroversial compared to uranium, with the vast majority of people believing that there is no doubt the world will need more copper in future years - and most people believing that current copper mines and ones currently under development are unlikely to be able to meet (satisfy) that demand - so we need more copper mines to be developed. It should also be noted that SFR is probably the only true Aussie pure-play copper company of significant size (in terms of market cap and annual copper production, as well as assets owned, and geographical spread of those assets) on the ASX, so while there are other companies that produce plenty of copper, like BHP, for people who want JUST copper exposure rather than the copper exposure they get through a miner that is diversified across multiple commodities, then SFR is the go-to stock for that pure copper exposure. OZ Minerals was another option, but BHP acquired OZL in April 2023, so they're not a pure-play option any more. We really just have Sandfire.
Shortly after BHP aquired OZL in April last year, Metals Acquisition (Corp) Limited (MAC) acquired the CSA Copper Mine - located near Cobar, New South Wales - from Glencore PLC (in June 2023) - so some people thought MAC might be another way to play copper on the ASX, however MAC is actually a private limited company incorporated under the laws of Jersey, Channel Islands and listed on the NYSE as a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) that is focused on the acquisition and operation of mining assets - with the CSA Copper Mine being their main asset at this point. However, expect further acquisitions; it's in their company name! And future acquisitions might not be copper. MAC is dual listed (ASX + NYSE) and at the time of listing (mid-last-year), ex-Northern Star Resources chief Bill Beament and ex-Fortescue executive Nev Power were behind it, although the pair are no longer involved.
This article from May this year: https://stocksdownunder.com/article/metals-acquisition-asxmac/ describes MAC as a Billion Dollar Company, but their market cap is currently just under half a billion. They were clearly worth less than one bil when that article was published because they peaked in May at $22.73/share and they're now trading at just over $15/share, so while their SP has dropped significantly, it haven't halved (yet). The market attributed more than A$1 Billion to the company (in market value terms) when they listed last year, which is probably what the article is refering to - and 14 months later they're trading at half of those levels. MAC the SPAC is not one I'm interested in at all, but it does get mentioned as one way to play copper here in Oz - not one of the best ways however, IMO. SFR looks like the goods in that department.
I'm following copper, but not directly exposed to it at this point. I have held SFR previously. I am only exposed to gold in terms of metals exposure via direct investment in companies, at this point. And to companies that service the mining sector, like NRW (NWH), GR Engineering (GNG) and Lycopodium (LYL).
My risk appetite has decreased significantly since I retired early - in the first half of calendar 2024. So the following table in the latest (today's) MT newsletter caught my eye:
What would be even better would be to have after-fees returns comparison between those ETFs in addition to those management and performance fees comparisions.
My current choice for that sort of exposure is via two LICs - WLE and WGB (WAM Leaders and WAM Global) - both acquired recently at discounts to their NTA (aka NAV) and that choice was primarily for (a) the exposure to companies that are not ones I follow closely and/or have any sort of investing edge with (global companies in the case of WGB and ASX large caps in the case of WLE) but that I am happy to have exposure to through outsourcing that element of my portfolio management, and (b) income in the form of fully franked dividends that have been rising every year since inception in both cases. The clincher in both cases was their very healthy "profit reserves", a feature that allows LICs to keep paying dividends, and indeed keep raising their dividends, even when they have bad years and/or actually lose money. Both WGB and WLE have profit reserves that cover years worth of future dividends. Those are the only two LICs I currently have any exposure to, and zero ETFs at this point, but I do use ETFs reasonably often for exposure to sectors or markets for almost zero fees (in the overall scheme of things).
So, yeah @edgescape - that does sound like fun, but I don't have that amount of time available, despite my early retirement, to get my head around US markets or any markets outside of Australia really, so I'll get my global exposure through WGB for now, who incidentally tend to avoid the Magnificent Seven - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta Platforms (Facebook), Nvidia, and Tesla - and instead invest in things like MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) who run WGB's own benchmark index, as well as SAP and other global market leaders in their field who also have strong tailwinds.
Their Benchmark, the MSCI World Index (in AU$) has outperformed WAM Global (WGB) and WGB has just managed to stay ahead of the MSCI World SMID Cap Index (in AU$) so they aren't cleaning up on performance fees, just charging management fees, and I like that they're paying fully franked (and rising) dividends, particularly when those franking credits can only be generated from trading profits, as none of their investee companies generate any franking credits themselves as they don't pay Australian tax (being overseas based companies) so there are zero franking credits passed through to WGB from their investee companies; WGB simply pay tax here themselves on their trading profits (capital gains) and pay sufficient tax by doing that to fully frank their dividends, and their dividend yield is decent - around 5.3% p.a. based on their current share price (and I paid a little less than their current share price) plus the value of their franking credits so that's around 7.4% p.a. as a grossed-up yield.
WLE's dividend yield is higher still, at around 7.2% p.a., or just over 10% p.a. grossed up (to include the full value of those franking credits). The growth potential is a lot lower than it would likely be by investing the same money in fast growing companies, but the income is locked in. Nothing in life is guaranteed, but decent dividends from those two LICs with their respective profit reserves being as large as they are, is close enough to a sure thing for me.
And income is important to me right now. I have exposure to a few companies directly that are growing at a good clip, but WLE and WGB are not that - they are about set-and-forget income, with a decent portion of my investable capital. Other available options include those fixed income ETFs in that table above, although I'm not using any of those at this point.
My idea is to lock in my required income (hopefully without significant capital losses that offset that income) and then to use the rest of my investable capital to make some capital gains. Some companies provide both, like LYL over decent timeframes (Lycopodium is my largest position after WLE), and others are likely to provide capital growth only (no dividends), like Cooper Energy (COE) hopefully. I like to mix it up a bit, as long as I know me and mine have enough to live on, comfortably. Time to cook some lunch.
The paper trades are for an assessment research task on ESG so this task is actually mandatory.
I also tried to do as less trades as possible so I can write less. But every time when some significant news pops up I had to determine whether the event was actionable or just noise. I then need to document each trade and the reason behind the trade with the referenced announcement or news release (in the appropriate format ie: Harvard).
So obviously it became apparent that each trade became a mini assignment in itself!
Also I could not use technical analysis as a reason (ie: there were more red candlesticks this week than last week or the short term MA moved below 200 MA etc)
On the flipside I get extra marks if my portfolio balance is more than the index balance. Last day of trade is Monday so the SP500 still has time to rally 3% to beat the portfolio.
But given that investors think the payrolls miss deserves a 50 basis point rate cut instead of the 25 basis point cut by the Fed because of no soft landing, I think the SP500 is unlikely to recover from Friday's session unless the Fed jumps in with a sudden rate cut (highly unlikely)
I have also observed liquidity has been poor in this past week as well which prompted me to exit early before the final day which is Monday.
I'll also add that Keysight Tech was the ESG stock and dark horse outsider which contributed the most.
I wanted to trade a bit of gold but only decent one I could find that had a good "story" was Mandalay Resources which was only on the OTC pink market and did not have time to confirm if that could be included.