WARREN BUFFETT’S LETTER – 1980 – 1981

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WB Letter 1980

Mr.Buffett gave his opinion about the repurchase of outstanding shares of the company.

He had discussed the effect of inflation to his shareholders in a very well manner.

Buffett focuses on businesses that can enhance the Return on Equity with the rising inflation and without the need of additional capital requirement.

When there is a temporary trouble to the business; and if the managers have an ability to cure that temporary problem and the business itself can generate good cash; then

Buffett mentions that we should focus on strong business so that it does not depend on the good management.

WB Letter 1981

Mr.Buffett has given his view on maximizing economic benefits rather than accounting appearance. And also stated some of the mistakes which the management is making.

Rather than buying companies which have the management with above-mentioned characteristics, he suggests buying a company which has the following characteristics.

Few companies are able to enhance their margins though their sales which are not growing at a very high rate and are still sustaining their market share.

In India, there is an air cooler manufacturing company which grew well without major additional capital.

In the above table; we can see that Sales and Net profit has grown by 30% and 48% CAGR respectively. And if we see cumulative capital expenditure made by the company; then it is just 10% of the cumulative net profit. The company has grown its sales and profitability without the requirement of major additional capital.

Mr.Buffett gives a good logical perspective that when the company can earn higher Return on equity; then they should invest their earnings into the business itself. And if the company is unable to earn higher Return on equity; then they should distribute earnings to the owners so that the owners can deploy capital in a better way. But we should be aware of companies that are raising capital for the dividend payout.

Warren Buffett’s Letters 1957 – 2012

 

WARREN BUFFETT’S LETTER – 1976 – 1979

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WB Letter 1976

Performance of the company has shown significant improvement in the year 1976 and company has been able to achieve 17.30% returns on shareholders’ equity.

Textile operation

Return on sales and Return on capital employed of textile operations was inadequate due to sluggish industry condition. Performance of any company can be measured by looking at the return on sales and return on capital employed and whether the business has a temporary problem or not.

Insurance operation

In the year 1976, insurance underwriting business has shown good performance due to the increase in the premium rates.

WB Letter 1977

People measure higher earnings per share on the basis of the past record-breaking earnings but according to Mr.Buffett, if the company issued 10% additional equity capital and if due to that there is an increase in earnings per share by 5%; then it is not considered a good performance. He mentioned that rather focusing on the higher reported earnings per share, we should focus on the return on equity capital (I.e. RoE).

Textile operation

Textile operations once again were reported as poor earning in the year 1977. Mr.Buffett gave a reason to the shareholders for remaining into the textile business.

Insurance operation

Mr.Buffett quoted the shifting of a pendulum from good period to the worst period –

He mentioned his investment criteria as –

WB Letter 1978

Diversified Retailing Company got merged into the Berkshire Hathway and due to this merger; holding of Berkshire into the Blue Chip Stamps increased to ~58%.

Textile operation

When a product is indifferentiated and business is capital intensive in nature, we earn inadequate return whereas we can earn above-average returns during a tight supply or shortage of product.

WB Letter 1979

Investment into equities shares carried out till 1979 at the lower of aggregate cost or market value. But from the year 1979, the accounting profession has decided to carry out investment at the market value.

Mr.Buffett has mentioned “Return on Capital Employed” as the criteria for measuring managerial performance.

A few years ago, Mr.Buffett had decided to purchase a Waumbec Mills in Manchester, the stock was available statistically cheap, well below the working capital of the business and, in effect, got very substantial amounts of machinery and real estate for less than nothing. But this decision resulted into the poor performance and faced too many difficulties to manage the business. Due to this experience, Mr.Buffett communicates an effective point to understand –

According to Mr.Buffett, we should focus on the management who utilize retained earnings effectively and will translate a dollar retained by them into a dollar or more of subsequent market value for us.

Mr.Buffett recognized his mistake in buying a bond and he had accepted this in front of his shareholders.

If we recognize our mistake and accept it, only then we can learn from it.

Warren Buffett’s Letters 1957 – 2012