Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA BRKB) posted an 18% drop in fourth-quarter net income on lower investment gains and a drop in insurance underwriting fees, and Chairman Warren Buffett warned that the insurance business is likely to get tougher in 2008.
"That party is over," the billionaire investor wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. "It's a certainty that insurance-industry profit margins, including ours, will fall significantly in 2008."
The investment holding company reported net income of $2.95 billion, or $1,904 a Class A share, compared with $3.58 billion, or $2,323 a Class A share, a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected the Omaha, Neb., company to post earnings of $1,606 a share.
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