转载：多所院校MBA学生与巴菲特共进午餐聆听巴菲特
2011-11-08 12:55阅读：
Published Sunday November 6, 2011
Warren Watch: Class eager to let him do most of the
talking
By
Steve Jordon
WORLD-HERALD STAFF
http://www.omaha.com/article/20111106/MONEY/711069931
Some University of Nebraska at Omaha students recently heard an
offer from Warren Buffett:
'If I gave you a billion dollars ...'
Of course, Buffett was making a hypothetical statement,
illustrating how to know when a business has a 'durable competitive
advantage' over others in the same industry. If a competitor had a
billion dollars, could it steal away your customers?
It was one lesson among many for the 32 students in a class titled
'Genius of Warren Buffett,' offered for the first time this fall at
UNO's College of Business Administration. The final class session
was a two-hour lunch and Q&A with Buffett at the Happy Hollow
Country Club.
Offered through UNO's executive MBA program, the clas
s covers not just Buffett's investing ideas but also his management
methods, communications style, philanthropy, character and other
aspects of his life. The instructor is Robert Miles, who has
written several books about Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.,
the Omaha-based investment company Buffett heads.
The class is under the auspices of finance department Chairman
David Volkman, who will grade the students' final papers later this
month.
The billion-dollar 'offer' came when Claire Kenkel's team outlined
a potential acquisition target for Buffett: the Buckle, a
Kearney-based casual clothing retail chain.
The company met many of Buffett's criteria for purchase: strong
return on capital, a family run company, $135 million in annual
revenue and a business plan that's difficult for competitors to
copy, said Kenkel, who is international marketing manager for an
Omaha health care diagnostics company.
Buffett responded that the team's analysis had hit all the right
points, she said. 'That was kind of an affirmation that at least we
hadn't missed the mark entirely.'
The billion-dollar comment also indicated that competitors would
have difficulty taking over the Buckle's market, she said.
Buffett also pointed out the price-control advantage that some
companies have. If Coca-Cola raises the price of each drink it
sells by a penny, that's $17 million a day and more than $6 billion
a year.
In all, the UNO students outlined nine companies for Buffett to
consider for acquisition. But students kept their comments brief,
Kenkel said. 'We wanted to maximize the amount of time Warren was
speaking. We were there to learn from him.'
In return, the Berkshire CEO bought the lunch — burgers, fries and
Cokes.
'I think he really enjoyed it, and the students really enjoyed
seeing how his mind works,' Miles said from his home in Sarasota,
Fla.
Of the 32 students, 20 are working on MBAs and 12 are 'lifelong
learners' not earning college credit. Most were from the Omaha
area, but some came from Texas, Missouri, California, Kansas and
Illinois.
Buying Canadian?
There's speculation that Berkshire's BNSF Railway is a potential
buyer of Canadian Pacific Railway, since shares in the Canadian
rail line are being bought up by Pershing Square Capital
Management, headed by William Ackman.
Bloomberg News reported that Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter
Nesvold raised the Burlington possibility, although others said a
Canadian pension fund is a more likely buyer. A combined Canadian
Pacific and BNSF would serve the entire western United States and
Canada, Nesvold said.
Rail mergers in the United States have involved mostly 'end-to-end'
rail lines, railroads that don't run parallel tracks through the
same territories but rather can combine their geographic markets if
they are allowed to merge. Government regulators want to preserve
rail competition where possible.
Canadian Pacific's lines connect in several spots with BNSF, which
would offer some logic to the possibility of a Berkshire bid.
A push into plastics
Berkshire division
Lubrizol
Corp. agreed to purchase
Merquinsa of Barcelona, Spain, a
leader in specialty thermoplastic polyurethanes, a type of plastic
that can be melted and reformed into a wide range of
products.
The purchase would add strength to Lubrizol's global plastics
portfolio, said Rocco Mango, vice president and general manager of
Lubrizol's engineered polymers division. Merquinsa is a
family-owned business started in 1964, employing about 100 people
and headed by President Jose Luis Ayuso.
Terms of the purchase, to be completed this year, were not
disclosed.
Industry journal Plastics Today said the purchase would create a
'global thermoplastic polyurethane powerhouse,' especially in
medical tubing.
Congressman angry
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., said in a Washington Times
commentary that Buffett is undermining his shareholders by
endorsing President Barack Obama's policies.
Earlier, Huelskamp had challenged Buffett to release his income
tax return, prompted by Buffett's call for high-income Americans to
pay fair income tax rates. Buffett declined but has said he would
if some other high-income taxpayers release theirs.
'Shareholders would be outraged if Berkshire Hathaway hired Mr.
Obama as its CEO,' Huelskamp wrote. 'But they should be just as
outraged that the current CEO is championing the president's ideas
and ideology, both of which threaten and undermine the company's
obligation to maximize shareholder value.'
An editorial in the Hutchinson (Kan.) News said Huelskamp looks
bad going after Buffett: 'Huelskamp apparently doesn't know how to
recognize when he has been outclassed.'
Contact the writer:
402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com
