Warren Buffett switches to deal mode

new York Warren Buffett is back in his element. He closed three deals within six weeks. He spent a good ten billion dollars on blocks of shares in Occidental and HP. For the insurer Alleghany $ 11.6 billion – the largest takeover since 2016.

For its shareholders, the deals are a welcome change in strategy. In recent years, the head of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate has attracted attention primarily for his stoic passivity. In view of the high company valuations before the pandemic, many acquisition targets were simply too expensive for him, even if he had the means with cash reserves of around $144 billion most recently.

But Buffett remained stubborn. His longtime business partner, Charlie Munger, quipped in 2019 that as a value investor “he can just sit on his hands and do nothing if the prices aren’t right. He is very good at that.”