(Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he expects a slump in reinsurance results in the coming decade as investors enter the market.
"It's a business whose prospects have turned for the worse and there's not much we can do about it," Buffett said Saturday at his company's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. The reinsurance industry in the next 10 years "will not be as good as it has been in the last 30."
Hedge funds are setting up offshore reinsurers to gain a tax advantage, underwriting a small amount of business as a "facade," Buffett said. Competition has driven down prices, while low interest rates pressure bond portfolios.
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