Friday, September 30, 2011 Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Warren Buffett, who has sold most of his company's holdings of European sovereign debt, said his firm isn't interested in helping to bail out lenders on the continent. "They need capital in their banks, in many of their banks," Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu on "In the Loop" today. "We would not be a good prospect," he said in an interview from the New York Stock Exchange. He's received "very, very few" calls about putting capital into European banks. "Not quite none at all," he said, declining to name any institutions. Berkshire sold most of its European holdings about year and a half ago, the billionaire said today on CNBC. A German reinsurance unit still holds some bonds from that nation, and Berkshire is "fine" with the investment, he said. The European debt crisis is bound to have some fallout in the U.S., he said. "It's hard to tell" what would happen if Greece fails to pay its debts, Buffett said in an earlier interview with Fox Business Network. "That's the reason I'm scared." European and U.S. stock markets have sagged on concern that Greece may default on its debts, setting off a chain reaction that could engulf other nations and their banks. Berkshire has made bullish derivative bets on global equity markets including contracts tied to the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, and Buffett has traveled to Europe in search of acquisitions. Buffett, 81, said in July that Berkshire sold European sovereign holdings a year earlier and called the continent's problems surmountable. His Omaha, Nebraska-based company has built the biggest equity stake in Germany's Munich Re, the world's No. 1 reinsurer. --Editors: Rick Green, William Ahearn To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in New York atafrye@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rick Green at rgreen18@bloomberg.net
Buffett Says Europe's Banks Shouldn't Look to Berkshire for Help
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Friday, 30 September 2011
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