Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' counterparty credit rating on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK) reflects our view of the company's extremely strong competitive position, very strong earnings, very strong liquidity, and conservative adjusted financial leverage and coverage metrics. In our view, BRK's high tolerance for equity investment risk and the resulting volatility in insurance-company statutory capital somewhat offset these factors. Other rating weaknesses include capital adequacy at the insurance operating companies that--as measured by our capital adequacy model--is less than what we typically expect at the current rating category, as well as the issue of management succession. We believe that BRK has an extremely strong and well-diversified competitive position. BRK is a unique holding company that owns a large number of
