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.

Tata Comm CEO among 10 global influential telecom people

Global Telecoms Business, a journal for communications service providers around the world, has named Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) CEO N Srinath has been as one of the 10 most influential telecom personnel.

Among the top 100 telecom personnel named by the magazine, N Srinath has been positioned at number 8. He has been credited for transforming Tata Communications in an international company and for the acquisition of networks like Teleglobe and Tyco Global Networks.

The list tops with Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs at number two.

Other Indians in the list are Bharti Enterprises Chairman and Group CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal (at number 35), Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint MD Manoj Kohli (number 39) and CEO of Motorola’s mobile services division Sanjay Jha (number 41).

Tata Communications’ President of global data and mobility solutions Vinod Kumar at number 68 and former CEO of Vodafone Arun Sarin at 71 are other Indian in the list.