Billionaire investor Warren Buffett makes investing sound easy, but his cash reserves mean few people actually can land the kinds of deals open to the Oracle of Omaha.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett makes investing sound easy, but his cash reserves mean few people actually can land the kinds of deals open to the Oracle of Omaha.Nati Harnik/Associated Press

“Always get more for your money than you pay,” Buffett said Thursday when summarizing the key to investing success.

But in recent years, copying Buffett has become harder because most investors lack his connections and the massive pile of cash held by his company, Berkshire Hathaway.

Just consider Berkshire’s recent deal to buy half of ketchup-maker H.J. Heinz Co. for $12.12 billion. Buffett said that the $23.3 billion deal got started on a private flight he shared with a friend and fellow billionaire from Brazil, and you’d have to have at least a few billion free to get in on it.

Or look at the deals Buffett made during the financial crisis to lend cash and credibility to companies such as Goldman Sachs in exchange for steep interest. Goldman paid Berkshire 10 percent interest on $5 billion and offered stock warrants in exchange for Buffett’s endorsement and cash.

Still, that didn’t keep more than 30,000 from filling an arena and several overflow rooms at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha last weekend. Those in attendance heard the 82-year-old Buffett and 89-year-old Vice Chairman Charlie Munger answer questions for hours.

The crowd comes to tap the wisdom of two great investors, to meet up with friends and just to experience the event Buffett likes to call the “Capitalists’ Woodstock.”

KBW analyst Meyer Shields said it’s really quite hard to copy what Buffett does these days.

“In many ways, the deals are more complicated than they appear,” Shields said.

Part of why it’s so much harder to copy Buffett’s investments is that the kind of deals he pursues have evolved with Berkshire’s growth.

The Omaha-based company – which once was home to little besides its namesake textile mills, an insurance company and investments – now is a major conglomerate with more than 80 subsidiaries that together generate about $1 billion a month for Buffett to invest.

Berkshire had nearly $47 billion on hand at the end of 2012 – giving Buffett the horsepower to consider investments simply beyond hope for almost anyone else.

If investors really want to profit from Buffett’s ideas, they can always take the direct route and buy some Berkshire Hathaway stock.

And owning Berkshire stock gives investors the chance to join 30,000 other like-minded folks in Omaha at the annual meeting where Buffett once again will make it all sound simple.