Posted on 10/20/2006 7:24:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) - Billionaire United States investor Warren Buffett offered reassurance to thousands of Lloyds of London names over his company's deal to take on pre-1993 claims.
In a deal announced Friday, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, his investment company, will provide 7 billion dollars (5.5 billion euros) reinsurance cover to Equitas, the company set up to manage the liabilities of policies underwritten by 34,000 individual investors, or "names".
Berkshire Hathaway unit National Indemnity Co will also take over the staff and management of Equitas, set up after Lloyds faced a crisis following the loss of eight billion pounds between 1988 and 1992 after a series of natural disasters and massive asbestos claims, ruining many names financially.
"If I were a name, I would feel that getting an additional 5.7 billion dollars of extra protection really ended things," Buffett told the Financial Times newspaper.
"As a name, I would feel that the Equitas management had put this matter to bed by this kind of contract."
The deal will give Berkshire "the expectation but not the assurance of profit", Buffett said.
The man nicknamed the Sage of Omaha said Equitas had made "a lot of progress" and added: "It will be long after I am dead before we know the final answers on how it all works out.
"But it's easier to make that assessment than it would have been five years ago."
Christopher Stockwell, chairman of the Lloyd's Names Association, told the newspaper the deal looked like it would "remove names' ultimate liabilities and give them true finality".
American billionaire Warren Buffett looks on prior to a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem office in September 2006. Buffett offered reassurance to thousands of Lloyds of London names over his company's deal to take on pre-1993 claims.(AFP/File/Gali Tibbon)
Reassurance AND Reinsurance -- I love it!
Well, OK ...
My reinsurance company will provide 8 billion dollars Warren.
So, like...
'cha..
"I'm betting the farm on Hillary Clinton."
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