Equity method investments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

Equity Method Investments and Joint Ventures [Abstract]

Equity method investments

(5)Equity method investments

Berkshire and its subsidiaries hold investments in certain businesses that are accounted for pursuant to the equity method. Currently, the most significant of these are our investments in the common stock of The Kraft Heinz Company (“Kraft Heinz”) and, as of August 4, 2022, Occidental. We own 26.6% of Kraft Heinz common stock and 21.4% of Occidental common stock, which excludes the potential effect of the exercise of Occidental common stock warrants. See Note 4.

Kraft Heinz manufactures and markets food and beverage products, including condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee and other grocery products. Occidental is an international energy company, whose activities include oil and natural gas exploration, development and production, and chemical manufacturing businesses. Occidental’s midstream businesses purchase, market, gather, process, transport and store various oil, natural gas, carbon dioxide and other products. Occidental’s financial information is not available in time for concurrent reporting in our consolidated financial statements. Therefore, we report the equity method effects for Occidental on a one-quarter lag. Our earnings in the fourth quarter of 2022 included our equity method share of Occidental’s third quarter earnings.

The common stock of Kraft Heinz and Occidental are publicly traded. The fair values and carrying values of these two investments in addition to the carrying values of our other significant equity method investments are summarized as follows (in millions).

	Carrying Value				Fair Value
	December 31,				December 31,
	2022		2021		2022		2021
Kraft Heinz	$	12,937	$	13,112	$	13,249	$	11,683
Occidental		11,484		—		12,242		—
Other		3,629		2,933
	$	28,050	$	16,045

Our earnings and distributions received from significant equity method investments are summarized in the table below (in millions). As previously indicated, we are reporting the equity method effects for Occidental on a one-quarter lag, thus the earnings we recorded in 2022 below do not reflect Occidental’s results for its fourth quarter.

	Equity in Earnings						Distributions Received
	Year ended December 31,						Year ended December 31,
	2022		2021		2020		2022		2021		2020
Kraft Heinz	$	628	$	269	$	95	$	521	$	521	$	521
Occidental		323		—		—		24		—		—
Other		912		617		562		284		1,057		383
	$	1,863	$	886	$	657	$	829	$	1,578	$	904

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (Continued)

(5)Equity method investments (Continued)

Summarized consolidated financial information of Kraft Heinz follows (in millions).

	December 31, 2022		December 25, 2021
Assets	$	90,513	$	93,394
Liabilities		41,643		43,942

	Year ending
	December 31, 2022		December 25, 2021		December 26, 2020
Sales	$	26,485	$	26,042	$	26,185
Net earnings attributable to Kraft Heinz common shareholders		2,363		1,012		356

Summarized consolidated financial information of Occidental, reported on a one quarter lag follows (in millions).

	September 30, 2022
Assets	$	72,144
Liabilities		43,424

	Third Quarter		First Nine Months
	2022		2022
Total revenues and other income	$	9,501	$	28,769
Net earnings attributable to Occidental common shareholders		2,546		10,777

Other significant investments accounted for pursuant to the equity method as of December 31, 2022 included our investments in Pilot Travel Centers, LLC (“Pilot”) and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC (“Berkadia”). Since 2017, we have owned a 38.6% interest in Pilot. We acquired an additional 41.4% interest on January 31, 2023 and became the majority owner of Pilot at that date. As a result, we discontinued the use of the equity method during the first quarter of 2023. See Note 26. We own a 50% interest in Berkadia, with Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (“Jefferies”) owning the other 50% interest. Berkadia provides capital solutions, investment sales advisory and mortgage servicing for multifamily and commercial real estate. Berkadia’s commercial paper borrowing capacity (currently limited to $1.5 billion) is supported by a surety policy issued by a Berkshire insurance subsidiary. Jefferies is obligated to indemnify us for one-half of any losses incurred under the policy.