Why Buffett sits on £14bn cash pile

13 April 2012

LEGENDARY investor Warren Buffett has revealed he has a $24bnn (£14bn) cash pile, but can't think where to spend it.

The billionaire chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway told Barrons magazine that he sees very few attractive investments - certainly not equities, stocks, Treasury bonds or junk debt.

Berkshire sold $9bn of long-term Treasury bonds this year, and Buffett said buying at current levels would not be wise, according to Barrons.

'We've got more cash than ideas,' he said. 'The question is whether that will prevail for an unduly long time.'

While to his many followers the so-called Sage of Omaha is infallible, Buffett himself admits to several mistakes. He says he regrets not selling his stakes in Coca-Cola and Gillette when they peaked in the late 1990s, although admits he was hamstrung by being on the board of both companies.

Buffett also rues not having bought Wal-Mart shares years ago because he thought they were overvalued. That decision cost his company $8bn, he told the magazine.

Despite his investing errors, Buffett has just overtaken Bill Gates to reclaim the position as world's richest man. His net worth is estimated at about $36bn.

A 6% drop in Microsoft's share price on Friday pushed Gates's net worth down to about $31.5bn from a high during the dot com boom of $100bn.

Buffett said the most promising parts of his empire were in insurance - the long-held auto insurer Geico and global reinsurer General Re.

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