Horejsi got in early and held.
“I’ve been to 32 annual meetings,” Horejsi said, recalling some early gatherings held in the cafeteria of Berkshire insurance subsidiary National Indemnity Co. in downtown Omaha. “There were 12 of us on folding chairs. I took friends and planted questions with them to keep the meeting going in future years.”
Horejsi (pronounced “Horish") built his Berkshire stake to 5,800 Class A shares, and sold 1,500 of them, beginning in 1998. A year later, he sold the family welding-supply company to Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Airgas Inc. He accumulated control of four closed-end stock funds, and now co-manages them through Boulder, Colorado-based Boulder Investment Advisers LLC, his money management firm.
Horejsi-controlled trusts hold stakes of as much as 77 percent in the funds, three of which own Berkshire shares, as well as interests in Wells Fargo & Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., all of which are partly held by Berkshire.
Buffett’s Billions
Because the funds trade at discounts of greater than 20 percent to their net asset values, he says investors can buy more of his favorite stock at a markdown.
‘‘If you can buy Berkshire at 80 percent of where it’s trading, that’s a better value,” Horejsi said.
After trailing global markets in the aftermath of the financial crisis that began in 2008, Berkshire has surged 28.7 percent this year, outpacing the 21 percent return by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Buffett has added $11 billion to his fortune this year, more than any other billionaire, according to the Bloomberg ranking.
The lost billionaires Buffett was referring to probably fall into two varieties of Berkshire shareholders. One is comprised of investors in the early investment partnerships Buffett managed, the first of which was started in 1956. The other includes business owners smart or lucky enough to sell their companies to Berkshire for stock instead of cash.
Buying NetJets