TIP717: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY 2025

W/ CHRIS BLOOMSTRAN

26 April 2025

Stig has invited legend investor Chris Bloomstran from Semper Augustus to teach us how to value Berkshire Hathaway on today’s show. Semper Augustus has an outstanding track record with a compounded annual growth rate of 11.4% on equities since its fund’s inception on 2/28/1999, compared to 8.2% for the S&P 500.

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • The importance of being trusted for Warren Buffett and Chris Bloomstran
  • Why you may want to own a 10-year treasury over the S&P 500 over the next decade
  • How to estimate whether you’re in a secular peak
  • How active Berkshire should be on the boards of portfolio companies
  • How to take a deep dive into Berkshire Hathaway’s culture and business model
  • What the intrinsic value of Berkshire Hathaway is, and what type of return you can get moving forward

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.

[00:00:00] Stig Brodersen: It’s the most wonderful time of the year like Andy Williams is singing and no, I’m not talking about Christmas. Well, perhaps I am. It’s certainly happy holidays for US value investors. Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting is coming up in the first week of May. Value investors across the globe are making the annual pilgrimage to Omaha to learn about investing alive from the Oracle himself and to meet up with all the new friends. Now, how do you best prepare for the Berkshire Weekend? Well, for years I’ve been reading Chris Bloomstran’s thoughtful letter, analyzing the company, and the price is just right. Like this podcast, it’s completely free. As tradition would have it, I’ve invited Chris to join us to do a deep dive on the career market conditions and Berkshire Hathaway. So sit back and join me in learning from one of the legends in value investing, Mr. Chris Bloomstran.

[00:00:55] Intro: Since 2014 and through more than 180 million downloads, we’ve studied the financial markets and read the books that influenced self-made billionaires the most. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. Now for your host, Stig Brodersen.

[00:01:20] Stig Brodersen: Welcome to The Investor’s Podcast. I’m your host Stig Brodersen, and the Berkshire weekend is coming up. And what better way to celebrate that than to speak with Chris Bloomstran? Chris, welcome to the show.

[00:01:33] Chris Bloomstran: Stig, I love being here. We’ve made this an annual tradition and that’s one of my favorite conversations every year.

[00:01:39] Chris Bloomstran: And you know, heading into the weekend, that’s the highlight for so many of us. So thanks for having me on again.

[00:01:45] Stig Brodersen: You bet. Chris and I, would just start off by saying that. Chris didn’t pay me to say this, but I just got to say for the record that for someone like me who reads so many shareholder letters throughout the year, that two of them stand out and it’s one’s written by Mr. Buffett. No surprise, but the other one’s written by you, Chris. And so it’s such a wonderful letter, and I say that every year. I print it out and I sit there with my marker and I like, there are so many, so many nuggets there. But one thing, and I would like to jump right into your letter here is that in your introduction but also in your summary of the letter, you talk about this importance of being trusted and then you also quote Buffett for talking about the importance of being trusted. Why is that so important to you?

[00:02:31] Chris Bloomstran: Stig, I think well, it’s the most important thing. If you listen to the last year’s annual meeting, which was the first time we didn’t have Charlie. It was a pretty emotional day. I’ve listened to the afternoon session. I would, I’d direct everybody to the afternoon session, which you can listen to it on the podcast app.

[00:02:49] Chris Bloomstran: You can go to the CNBC and watch, but there was so much, there was so much information and wisdom in that last hour and a half or whatever it was. And a lot of it was life advice and reflection, you know. And I think the second to last question, Warren was asked really kind of a question I didn’t like, but it had to do with his, his, his early years when he had a family and young kids and he worked all the time.

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