Berkshire slumps, MBIA back in black

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha, Neb. reported net earnings declined for the second quarter to $2.88 billion. That’s down from $3.12 billion during the second quarter in 2007. Net earnings per Class A-equivalent share fell to $1,859 for the quarter, down from $2,018 for the same period last year. The company’s insurance business was a drag on earnings, as underwriting profit plummeted to $360 million for the quarter, down from $632 million in the year ago period. Diminishing underwriting returns came from nearly all of Berkshire’s insurance businesses, including Geico of Chevy Chase, Md., which reaped $289 million for the quarter, compared with $325 million for the same quarter in the previous year. General Re Corp. of Stamford, Conn. brought in $102 million for the quarter, down from $230 million in the second quarter of 2007. Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group in Omaha, however, saw its underwriting gains spike to $81 million for the quarter, up from $63 million for the same quarter last year. MBIA Inc., the Armonk, N.Y.-based bond insurer, booked a second-quarter profit of $1.7 billion, or $7.14 per share. That’s up from $211.8 million, or $1.61 per share, a year ago, and a boost from its $2.4 billion loss in the first quarter, which was due to exposure to subprime mortgage-linked bonds. Quarterly profits were buoyed by $3.3 billion in pretax unrealized gains on insured credit derivatives, bringing the company back into the black after three consecutive quarters of losses. Despite the improvement in net income, Jay Brown, MBIA’s chairman and chief executive, in a statement expressed disappointment in previous downgrades by New York-based ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service, which “had a significant impact on our asset management business and our ability to write new insurance business.”