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THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFETT
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Champion at yearend 1990 as worth about what we paid, Gillette
as worth somewhat more, and USAir as worth substantially less.
In making the USAir purchase, your Chairman displayed ex-
quisite timing: I plunged into the business at almost the exact mo-
ment that it ran into severe problems. (No one pushed me; in
tennis parlance, I committed an "unforced error.") The company's
troubles were brought on both by industry conditions and by the
post-merger difficulties it encountered in integrating Piedmont, an
affliction I should have expected since almost all airline mergers
have been followed by operational turmoil.
In short order, Ed Colodny and Seth Schofield resolved the
second problem: The airline now gets excellent marks for service.
Industry-wide problems have proved to be far more serious. Since
our purchase, the economics of the airline industry have deterio-
rated at an alarming pace, accelerated by the kamikaze pricing tac-
tics of certain carriers. The trouble this pricing has produced for all
carriers illustrates an important truth: In a business selling a com-
modity-type product, it's impossible to be a lot smarter than your
dumbest competitor.
However, unless the industry is decimated during the next few
years, our USAir investment should work out all right. Ed and
Seth decisively addressed the current turbulence by making major
changes in operations. Even so, our investment is now less secure
than at the time I made it.
Our convertible preferred stocks are relatively simple securi-
ties, yet I should warn you that, if the past is any guide, you may
from time to time read inaccurate or misleading statements about
them. Last year, for example, several members of the press calcu-
lated the value of all our preferreds as equal to that of the common
stock into which they are convertible. By their logic, that is, our
Salomon preferred, convertible into common at $38, would be
worth 60% of face value if Salomon common were selling at
$22.80. But there is a small problem with this line of reasoning:
Using it, one must conclude that all of a value of a convertible pre-
ferred resides in the conversion privilege and that value of a non-
convertible preferred of Salomon would be zero, no matter what its
coupon or terms for redemption.
The point you should keep in mind is that most of the value of
our convertible preferreds is derived from their fixed-income char-
acteristics. That means the securities cannot be worth less than the
value they would possess as non-convertible preferreds and may be
worth more because of their conversion options.
116
CARDOZO LAW REVIEW
[Vol. 19:1
Berkshire made five private purchases of convertible pre-
ferred stocks during the 1987-91 period and the time seems right to
discuss their status.
In each case we had the option of sticking with these prefer-
reds as fixed-income securities or converting them into common
stock. Initially, their value to us came primarily from their fixed-
income characteristics. The option we had to convert was a kicker.
Our $300 million private purchase of American Express
"Peres" . . . was a modified form of common stock whose fixed-
income characteristics contributed only a minor portion of its ini-
tial value. Three years after we bought them, the Peres automati-
cally were converted to common stock. In contrast, [our other
convertible preferred stocks] were set to become common stocks
only if we wished them to-a crucial difference.
When we purchased our convertible securities, I told you that
we expected to earn after-tax returns from them that "moderately"
exceeded what we could earn from the medium-term fixed-income
securities they replaced. We beat this expectation-but only be-
cause of the performance of a single issue. I also told you that
these securities, as a group, would "not produce the returns we can
achieve when we find a business with wonderful economic pros-
pects." Unfortunately, that prediction was fulfilled. Finally, I said
that "under almost any conditions, we expect these preferreds to
return us our money plus dividends." That's one I would like to
have back. Winston Churchill once said that "eating my words has
never given me indigestion." My assertion, however, that it was
almost impossible for us to lose money on our preferreds has
caused me some well-deserved heartburn.
Our best holding has been Gillette, which we told you from
the start was a superior business. Ironically, though, this is also the
purchase in which I made my biggest mistake-of a kind, however,
never recognized on financial statements.
We paid $600 million in 1989 for Gillette preferred shares that
were convertible into 48 million (split-adjusted) common shares.
Taking an alternative route with the $600 million, I probably could
have purchased 60 million shares of common from the company.
The market on the common was then about $10.50, and given that
this would have been a huge private placement carrying important
restrictions, I probably could have bought the stock at a discount of
at least 5%. I can't be sure about this, but it's likely that Gillette's
1997]
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