Subject: Buffet comes out fine in Heinz flop
I have been wondering about this. Not a home run by any means, but not a K either.

Warren Buffett comes out on top from Kraft Heinz flop

Buffett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway bought Heinz in 2013, in a co-investment with private equity firm 3G Capital. The two then made a bid for the listed Kraft Foods in 2015, emerging with half of the resulting mayo-to-macaroni-cheese maker. It didn’t go down well. After painful asset writedowns and profit warnings, 3G eventually sold its shares. Buffett stayed put, admitting he overpaid.

Zoom in on the numbers, though, and Buffett did better than one might expect. Berkshire Hathaway paid $4.3bn for its stake in Heinz. More cash added during the merger with Kraft took the total to $9.8bn. Today, its 27 per cent stake in Kraft Heinz is worth $8.8bn. But Buffett’s firm has also received about $6.3bn of dividends, Lex calculates. So in total, he is up nearly 60 per cent on his ordinary shares.

What’s more, the Oracle of Omaha made a tidy and faster profit by buying $8bn of Heinz preferred shares alongside his initial investment. These paid more than $2bn of dividends and were redeemed in full three years later.

Kraft’s shareholders, in contrast, get thin gruel.

https://www.ft.com/content/ac0...