Interesting piece in Business Week about Berkshire insuring other companies against a France victory.
From BW:
Warren Buffett won his bet against France in the World Cup when the 1998 champion was eliminated by South Africa.
France fell 2-1 to the host nation today, after drawing Uruguay and dropping 2-0 to Mexico. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had sold insurance requiring the Omaha-based company to pay a client if France won the tournament, Buffett told CNBC in March.
“I think we’re going to lose 30 million bucks or something like that†if France wins, Buffett, Berkshire’s 79-year-old chief executive officer, said at the time.
The article goes on to state that Carrefour SA, Europe’s biggest retailer had a promotion going in which customers buying flat- screen televisions would have been reimbursed if France won the tournament. The article does not say that this is the deal that Buffet has insured, just uses this as an illustration.
Buffet said that they would have lost some $30 million had France won, but there is no mention of how much they earned from this bet.
