Despite the writedown, Berkshire said second-quarter net income surged 87% because of gains in stock investments such as Apple Inc as markets rebounded.
Operating profit fell 10%, cushioned by a temporary bump at the Geico auto insurer, as the pandemic caused “relatively minor to severe” damage to most of Berkshire’s more than 90 operating businesses.
“The writedown was prudent,” said Cathy Seifert, an equity analyst at CFRA Research. “It’s a recognition of what the market has long believed, that the purchase price was rich, and the integration not as smooth as many would have hoped.”
Berkshire, which paid $32.1 billion for Precision in 2016 in its largest acquisition, and which Buffett at the time called a steep price, said COVID-19 caused airlines to slash plane orders, significantly curbing demand for Precision’s products.
Buffett himself soured on airlines during the quarter, selling $6 billion of their stock and telling shareholders on May 2 the industry’s future had become “much less clear to me.”
Berkshire said Precision, which also makes industrial parts, saw revenue fall by one-third and plans an “aggressive restructuring” to shrink operations. Precision ended 2019 with 33,417 employees, and has shed 30% of its workforce.
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