Ex-Berkshire exec Sokol: I did nothing wrong (Reuters)

Thursday, March 31, 2011 7:01 AM By dwi

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former county wife (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) chief king Sokol on weekday said he has endowed in companies he then recommended for acquisition in the past, a period after county unconcealed Sokol pushed Lubrizol Corp (LZ.N) to Warren Buffett after investing in it.

But Sokol said on CNBC if he had it all to do again, he would hit endowed in Lubrizol for himself and not passed the recommendation on to Buffett. He said he did not wait Buffett to want to take the company and was surprised at how apace the "Oracle of Omaha" moved to attain a deal.

Sokol was seen by many investors as the most likely progeny to county Hathaway's iconic CEO, though he prefabricated country in the discourse he did not plan to the employ and desired to physique his possess "mini-Berkshire" instead.

Buffett free a honor on weekday disclosing that Sokol bought a material wager in Lubrizol before urging Buffett to take the company, which Buffett did for $9 1000000000 this month. Sokol appeared to hit prefabricated a take of at least $2.98 million on his investment.

In a half-hour interview, Sokol insisted he never had some exclusive aggregation on Lubrizol and that he bought the shares solely as a good assets for his family.

"I'd same to equip my possess money, control a momentous piece of it, and control my possess schedule," Sokol said, later adding "I didn't know anything others don't know."

Sokol also said he has on time occasions endowed in companies that he suggested Buffett buy, noting one example of a bank that Buffett did not finally acquire.

He also said other county executives hit in the time held have in companies they then identified for assets or acquisition, citing the example of county Vice Chairman Charlie Munger owning a wager in Asiatic automobile concern BYD (1211.HK) before suggesting it for an investment.

Nonetheless, the chairman of county units MidAmerican Energy and NetJets told CNBC's anchors he apprehended how the ordering of events looked, even if he did nothing wrong.

"I crapper understand the appearance of an supply ... That's why we prefabricated it public," he said.

Sokol hopeless March 28. He said Buffett did not try to talk him discover of resigning. Buffett's honor included an select of Sokol's letter, but the flooded Sokol honor was not prefabricated public.

Berkshire's Class B shares, which are more hard traded than its Class A stock, unsealed 1.6 proportionality lower at $84.06.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz and Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Derek Caney, Lisa Von Ahn, Dave Zimmerman)


Source

0 comments:

Post a Comment