Berkshire Hathaway Inc Liquidation Value

Berkshire Hathaway's Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended March 31, 2026) reflects a balance sheet of extraordinary scale but complex liquidation posture. Total assets are $1.252 trillion against total liabilities of $522.8 billion, with reported shareholders' equity of $727.2 billion. Under liquidation lens, the headline equity figure is economically misleading because the largest asset classes carry severe haircuts or zero recovery.

The dominant asset is equity securities at $288.0 billion fair value (cost $84.6 billion), which under liquidation would be marked at fair value (100% recovery on listed equities is a reasonable approximation since they are freely tradeable), providing genuine liquidity. Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash total $58.8 billion, recoverable at 100%. U.S. Treasury Bills and short-term instruments bring disclosed insurance/other segment liquid holdings (cash, equivalents, T-Bills net of payables) to $373.5 billion per MD&A — this is the highest-quality asset pool.

Goodwill is $83.2 billion and indefinite-lived intangibles are $19.0 billion — both worth zero in liquidation. Total accumulated impairment on goodwill already stands at $13.0 billion. The filing discloses four reporting units where fair value exceeds carrying value by less than 20%, with aggregate goodwill of $9.2 billion at elevated impairment risk. PP&E (excluding operating lease assets) carries substantial book value but is not separately tagged in available XBRL beyond operating lease assets ($18.7 billion net book value on operating lease PP&E). Consolidated D&A of $3.5 billion per quarter implies a massive gross PP&E base across BNSF, BHE, and manufacturing subsidiaries — most of which is specialized infrastructure recovering 50-70 cents on the dollar in distressed liquidation at best.

On the liability side, insurance loss reserves are stated at $151.9 billion (unpaid losses and LAE) and stay at face in liquidation. BNSF debt is $23.6 billion, BHE aggregate borrowings are $62.5 billion (up $3.2 billion in Q1 2026 from new issuances), Berkshire parent debt is $19.9 billion, and BHFC is $18.2 billion. Total consolidated debt is approximately $124 billion. Clayton Homes' loan book net of allowances is $29.8 billion (funded by BHFC borrowings), creating a matched but illiquid position. Inventory of $25.5 billion recovers at roughly 60 cents, implying ~$10B haircut. Financing receivables gross $32.3 billion with $1.4 billion allowance — at 90-95 cents recovery, a further $1.6-$3.2B haircut applies.

Material Q1 2026 change: Berkshire closed the OxyChem acquisition on January 2, 2026 for approximately $9.5 billion, adding $260 million in goodwill and $1.285 billion in liabilities assumed. OxyChem generated a small pre-tax loss in Q1 2026 due to acquisition accounting amortization and elevated costs. BHE debt rose $3.2 billion from $4.6 billion in new term issuances at 5.8% weighted average rate. The filing discusses the OxyChem PP&E and working capital additions in MD&A but does not separately tag OxyChem-specific asset balances in XBRL. Net equity securities sales of $8.1 billion (proceeds $24.1B less purchases $15.9B) reduced equity portfolio concentration modestly. Filing discusses Pilot generating a pre-tax loss of $50 million in Q1 2026 versus $168 million profit in Q1 2025, a $218 million swing, driven by hedging losses on fuel price movements — a going-concern operational issue rather than a direct liquidation concern but signals deteriorating asset quality in that segment.