Que pena no entenderlo bien.
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What Really Happened Between Lehman Brothers and Warren Buffett
Here is some fascinating information on what really happened between Lehman Brothers and Warren Buffett (from the examiners report):
In late March 2008, McGee suggested that Lehman reach out to Buffett.
McGee had a pre‐existing banking relationship with Sokol of MidAmerican Energy, which is majority‐owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Either McGee or Joseph G. Sauvage, LBI Vice‐Chairman, called Sokol to ask if Buffett would take Fuld’s call.
Jerry A. Grundhofer, who was about to join Lehman’s Board, also asked Buffett if he would take Fuld’s call. Buffett agreed.
Before calling Buffett, Fuld called Sokol on March 27, 2008. That same day, Lehman prepared a draft of a letter, to be sent by Fuld to Lehman employees, outlining a $3.5 billion investment from Buffett in Lehman’s preferred stock at a $54 per share conversion price.
Fuld told the Examiner that he did not know how that letter came to be prepared, and it does not appear that Fuld saw the draft. Fuld also did not recall Buffett indicating a willingness to invest $3.5 billion. Buffett was surprised that Lehman had prepared a draft letter announcing the deal, because he never got close to a deal with Lehman.
And here is where it really gets interesting.
Fuld and Buffett spoke on Friday, March 28, 2008. They discussed Buffett investing at least $2 billion in Lehman. Two items immediately concerned Buffet during his conversation with Fuld. First, Buffett wanted Lehman executives to buy under the same terms as Buffett. Fuld explained to the Examiner that he was reluctant to require a significant buy‐in from Lehman executives, because they already received much of their compensation in stock. However, Buffett took it as a negative that Fuld suggested that Lehman executives were not willing to participate in a significant way. Second, Buffett did not like that Fuld complained about short sellers. Buffett thought that blaming short sellers was indicative of a failure to admit one’s own problems.
Following his conversation with Buffett, Fuld asked Paulson to call Buffett, which Paulson reluctantly did. Buffett told the Examiner that during that call, Paulson signaled that he would like Buffett to invest in Lehman, but Paulson “did not load the dice.”
Buffett spent the rest of Friday, March 28, 2008, reviewing Lehman’s 10‐K and noting problems with some of Lehman’s assets. Buffett’s concerns centered around Lehman’s real estate and high yield investments, lending‐related commitments, derivatives and their related credit‐market risk, Level III assets and Lehman’s securitization activity. On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Buffett learned of a $100 million problem in Japan that Fuld had not mentioned during their discussions, and Buffett was concerned that Fuld had not been forthcoming about the issue. The problems Buffett saw in the 10‐K along with Fuld’s failure to alert Buffett to the issue in Japan cemented Buffett’s decision not to invest in Lehman.
At some point in their conversations, Fuld and Buffett also discovered that there had been a miscommunication about the conversion price. Buffett was interested only in convertible preferred shares.2452 Buffett told Fuld that he was willing to agree to a $40 conversion price per share, while Fuld thought Buffett was offering to buy in at “up‐40,” or 40% above the current market price, which would have been about $56 per share. On Friday, March 28, 2008, Lehman’s stock closed at $37.87
Fuld spoke to Lehman’s executive committee and several Board members about his conversations with Buffett. Lehman recognized that an investment by Buffett would provide a “stamp of approval.” However, Lehman already had better offers for its April capital raise, and Lehman did not think it could give a better deal to Buffett at the same time it gave a less attractive deal to others.
On Monday, March 31, 2008, before Buffett could tell Fuld that he was not interested, Fuld called Buffett to say that Lehman could not accept his terms.
One last-ditch effort with Buffett
McGee contacted Sokol again in late August or early September 2008 and outlined Lehman’s “Gameplan” for survival, specifically SpinCo. During a subsequent telephone call with Sokol, McGee explained the “good bank/bad bank” scenario and stated that Lehman would need an investor. Sokol believed the e‐mail and call were intended to induce Sokol to pass that information on to Buffett, so Sokol briefed Buffett on SpinCo. Buffett thought the idea would not solve Lehman’s problems.
Sometime during the week prior to Lehman’s bankruptcy, McGee again reached out to Sokol with what both Sokol and McGee described to the Examiner as a “Hail Mary” pass. McGee asked, “Do you have any ideas to save us?” Sokol, who was bear hunting in Alaska at the time, told McGee that he did not.
“Los dos guerreros más poderosos son paciencia y tiempo.” (León Tolstoi)