Utilities not a way to get rich but can help you stay rich

[Tibular]

Buffett: Utilities not a way to get rich but can help you stay rich
By Glen Boshart

While acknowledging that involvement with the electric utility industry usually will not make someone rich, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said June 9 that reality has not kept him from investing $15 billion into his power businesses over the past few years — nor will it be likely to prevent him from making similar investments in the future.

"We've poured billions into [the utility businesses] and will continue to do so," Buffett told a large audience attending the Edison Electric Institute's annual convention in Las Vegas. The reason, he explained, is that while the industry "may not make you rich, it can help you stay rich. And we've stayed rich."

"The math is making sense for us" and therefore "we will be happy to deploy a lot more money" in the electric utility sector, Buffett explained.

That said, Buffett insisted that one of the keys to being a good investor is to "stay within your circle of confidence" and not be tempted into spending money on things "you know nothing about." He stressed that although he may have thousands of investment opportunities every day, he always "waits for the … pitch" that is "right in the sweet spot" before taking a swing because his chances of success are much greater when he does so.

"You can take just one swing a year as long as you hit the ball," Buffett told the audience. He said the right pitches for him have been those related to his electric utility investments, as well as to products such as Heinz ketchup and Coca Cola — in which he now owns 9%. Selling Cokes is a fairly simple business, he suggested, noting that he can make $18 million a day even if he is paid only a single penny for each of the 1.8 billion eight-ounce servings of the beverage that are sold daily.

Buffett said he is not, however, tempted by investments in technology companies because he knows very little about that business. He nevertheless indicated that he does not include renewable energy as such a technology, noting that Berkshire Hathaway Energy's (previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings) utility subsidiaries, including PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Co., have invested heavily in renewable technologies over the past few years and probably will continue to do so.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Buffett said he supports the continuation of tax credits for wind and other renewable energy supplies. He reasoned that the credits can help change business models in ways that create public benefits when markets fail to provide the adequate incentives for those changes. "Credits can direct investments where they otherwise would not be," Buffett said.

Buffett nevertheless acknowledged that tax credits can be misused. The goal, he insisted, must be to employ them in a way that is good for society and forward-looking. "We should embrace them but in an intelligent way," he said.

On broader issues, Buffett said that while he supports building the controversial Keystone oil pipeline from Canada to the Southern U.S., he is not in favor of exporting domestic natural gas supplies to other countries. The use of fracking technologies means that the U.S. has much more of the fuel than ever before imagined, but the supply is still finite and therefore it should continue to be treated as such for the sake of future generations, he said.

Buffett also said the U.S. economy seems to be continuing to grow steadily but not nearly as fast as some would like, especially in the housing sector — a trend that continues to baffle him. "What we see is steady growth" in the overall economy "but far from spectacular gains," Buffett said. He added that the auto industry "has come back particularly strong," and overall "businesses are getting better."

He further noted that the recovery has taken five long years to gain some traction, although he acknowledged that the financial crisis that caused the country to enter into a deep recession "was the greatest scare" he has ever seen.

The U.S. economic engine "came very close to completely stalling," Buffett said, suggesting that only one thing prevented a severe depression that could have been precipitated by a run on banks when money markets in 2008 suddenly "broke the buck" — meaning they could have delivered a negative return for the first time in history. Then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was willing to stand up and say "I will do whatever it takes" to stem the crisis and secure those funds by offering to have the U.S. government insure any money market fund, Buffett recalled.

Buffett also commented on his investments in newspapers, acknowledging that it has become a difficult business "because the whole idea of news has changed." While newspapers once were many Americans' primary source for information on subjects such as sports, business and politics, Buffett said that no longer is the case. The one exception to that trend is that newspapers continue to provide exclusive coverage of extremely local events, Buffett said, although he predicted that even local newspaper readership will continue to decline.

"Every time I see a hearse go by on the road, I think there goes one of our readers" who is not going to get replaced due to the way younger people now get their news, Buffett said. He accordingly acknowledged that he does not expect "to make a lot of money" in the newspaper business.

Nevertheless, if someone like Jeff Bezos, who recently bought a majority share of The Washington Post, can figure out a way to make money with newspapers, Buffett said he will be quick to copy that business strategy. He suggested that the one thing he would do if he owned that newspaper would be "to cover the heck out of the Redskins and the Nationals" because people who support those teams transcend the three more local areas of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia that are served by that newspaper.

Finally, Buffett continued to express strong confidence in both the American economy and way of life. "America works," and "the game is far from over," he said, noting that "anybody who has bet against the U.S. since 1776 has lost eventually."

Source
http://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article ... 5125-13103


สรุปสั้นๆ

1. บัฟเฟตต์ ก็ลงทุนในสาธารณูปโภค เช่น ไฟฟ้า น้ำ เพราะรายได้และเงินปันผล
สม่ำเสมอ ถึงแม้มูลค่าหุ้นจะไม่เติบโตเร็วมาก ก็เหมือนที่เขาบอก

"Utilities not a way to get rich but can help you stay rich"

แล้วก็พลังงานทดแทน เช่น พลังงานลม พลังงานแสงอาทิตย์ อันนี้มีเงินเครดิตภาษีให้
สำหรับในเมกา สำหรับบ้านเราก็คงเป็นในเรื่องการสนับสนุนค่าชดเชยของภาครัฐ

2. บัฟเฟตต์ สนับสนุนการลงทุนท่อก๊าซไปแคนาดา แต่ไม่อยากให้มีการส่งออก
อยากจะเก็บพลังงานไว้ให้ลูกหลาน เทคโนโลยี Fracking นั้นจะทำให้เมกามีพลังงาน
เหลือใช้ไปอีกนาน

นั่นก็อาจจะเป็นได้ว่า เมกาจะนำเข้าพลังงานลดลง อาจจะเป็นเหตุ
ให้ราคาน้ำมันและก๊าซทรงตัวไม่เพิ่มขึ้นมาก หรือแม้กระทั่งลดลงได้ในอนาคต
(ความคิดส่วนตัว)

3. บัฟเฟตต์ บอกว่า เศรษฐกิจอเมริกาฟื้นแล้วแต่ไม่เร่งตัวมาก
อุตสาหกรรมรถยนต์ฟื้นตัวแข็งแรง รวมถึงภาคอุตสหกรรมอื่นๆกำลังตามมาด้วย

4. บัฟเฟตต์ เป็นห่วง อุตสาหกรรมสิ่งพิมพ์ เช่น หนังสือพิมพ์ ที่เคยเป็นตัวหลัก
ในการให้ข้อมูลข่าวสาร เริ่มถดถอย เพราะผู้บริโภครุ่นใหม่สามารถเสพข่าวสาร
จากสื่ออื่นๆได้ และมีการเปลี่ยนพฤติกรรมไป

จากละครโรงใหญ่ ถึงละครโรงเล็ก
ลองมาเปรียบเทียบกับในบ้านเราดู