Berkshire Hathaway's Greg Abel Goes on a Buying Spree While Tokio Marine Eyes Suncorp

Berkshire Hathaway's second-quarter numbers, filed with its 13F and detailed by reinsurancene.ws, show a company that is putting money to work faster than it has in years. Net underwriting earnings across GEICO, primary insurance and reinsurance fell to $1.731 billion in Q2 2026, down from $1.992 billion a year earlier. GEICO dragged that number down with a higher loss ratio, driven by claims frequency, severity, and rising commissions and marketing costs.

The reinsurance side told a different story. Property and casualty reinsurance underwriting earnings rose to $1.138 billion, up from $1.045 billion in Q2 2025, according to reinsurancene.ws. Part of that improvement came from a lucky break: zero catastrophe losses above $150 million in the first half of 2026, compared to $760 million in wildfire losses reported in the same period last year. Berkshire also got a $609 million reduction in prior-year loss reserves, another one-time boost.

The structural story is the account quota share reinsurance agreement Berkshire's National Indemnity Company signed with Tokio Marine. That deal, which built on a first-quarter move where NICO took a 2.5 percent equity stake in the Japanese insurer, is now fully in force. It generated $483 million in non-life premiums for Berkshire in Q2 alone, according to reinsurancene.ws. Without it, Berkshire's reinsurance premium volumes would have declined along with the rest of its property book.

Tokio Marine's Next Move: Suncorp

That same Berkshire-linked insurer is now making headlines on its own. The Financial Times reported, and Channel NewsAsia relayed on Tuesday, that Tokio Marine has settled on Australia's Suncorp as its preferred acquisition target after reviewing multiple options, including Insurance Australia Group and Canada's Intact Financial Corp. Two people with direct knowledge of the matter told the FT that Intact was ruled out for being too large a target.

Both Suncorp and IAG declined to comment, and Tokio Marine did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters said it could not independently confirm the FT report. Nothing here amounts to a signed deal. The sources cited by the FT explicitly warned discussions were ongoing and there is no certainty an acquisition happens.

That uncertainty did not stop the market from reacting. Shares of Suncorp and IAG jumped between 5 and 6 percent on the news, leading gains on Australia's benchmark ASX 200 index, which itself rose 0.9 percent on its financials sub-index. Investors are clearly pricing in a real chance of a deal, even though none has been confirmed.

Abel's Broader Buying Spree

The Tokio Marine relationship is one piece of a larger pattern. According to a Seeking Alpha analysis published August 16 by Gary Gambino, Berkshire under CEO Greg Abel made major additions to its Alphabet and Delta positions in the second quarter, announced a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison, and executed $4.4 billion in stock buybacks. Gambino, who discloses a long position in Berkshire shares, argues this marks a departure from what he calls the company's prior conservatism, and pegs his sum-of-the-parts valuation at a 12.7 percent premium to Berkshire's market price.

Taken together, the picture is a Berkshire that is deploying capital more aggressively than it did in the final Buffett-led years, buying into insurers, homebuilders, and tech and airline stocks, while its reinsurance arm quietly expands its footprint through the Tokio Marine tie-up.

What Happens Next

No Tokio Marine-Suncorp deal has been signed, and the FT's own sourcing stresses there is no certainty one will happen. If talks advance, expect Australian regulators, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to weigh in on any formal bid given Suncorp's size in the domestic insurance market. On the Berkshire side, the next data point to watch is the third-quarter 13F filing, which will show whether Abel's Alphabet and Delta additions were a one-quarter move or the start of a sustained shift in how Berkshire allocates the roughly $340 billion in cash Buffett-era conservatism had built up. Investors betting on Suncorp or IAG based on the FT report should note that Reuters, a wire service with its own reporting relationships in the region, said it could not independently confirm the story as of Tuesday.