This past weekend, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B) stole the spotlight with its annual report. But some other famed superinvestors' publicly traded vehicles also offered up their year-end results to little or no fanfare.
Of course, it's hard to get excited about a 55% decline in book value, which is exactly what Leucadia National (NYSE:LUK) reported for 2008. That makes Berkshire's record near-10% decline look like a mere pothole.
Unlike Berkshire, which invests mostly in Armageddon-proof fare like Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), the Leucadia guys tend to deal in "out of favor or troubled" businesses. Now that they've taken big stakes in targets like AmeriCredit, and, er, Target (NYSE:TGT), unrealized holding losses in these investments are dinging Leucadia's book value.
Obviously market values have deteriorated further since Dec. 31, so that reported $11.22 per share book value is even more uninformative than under less volatile circumstances. Leucadia's carrying value for AmeriCredit dropped from $250 million to $127 million on Feb. 20. The investment in Target, made by committing $200 million to Bill Ackman's Pershing Square IV fund, is now down 93%.
Leucadia's financials are about as easy to navigate as a fire swamp, but to figure out what's really going on in there, and whether investors will escape from this pit of despair, you'll just have to set aside a few hours and wade through the 10-K. Godspeed, brave Fools.
Meanwhile, Berkshire subsidiary Wesco Financial (AMEX:WSC) reported results that are far easier to digest. There are just a whole lot fewer moving parts here. Book value declined about 6%, largely on account of unrealized losses on the stock holdings. Meanwhile, Wesco recognized net gains on investments that were sold both for the fourth quarter and for the full year.
Conveniently, Wesco indicated the subsequent mark-to-market book value declines experienced through Feb. 24. Based on this pretty current figure of $291 per share, Wesco is trading at a pretty steep discount. I continue to find this one of the most intriguing net-nets in the market today.
