Berkshire Hathaway gets $8bn boost from Goldmans loan

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway made a profit of $806m on lending Goldman Sachs $5bn to help the bank through the last financial crisis.

The boost from backing Goldmans helped Berkshire take its profit after tax to $3.42bn in the second quarter, up from $1.97bn the year before, the Telegraph reports.

Berkshire also revealed it had increased holdings of foreign government securities by 9% to $13.3bn.

Buffett's investment company is anticipating the nine-figure profit it can collect from October when a $3bn loan to GE matures.

Berkshire's book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, also rose in the three months to $163bn from $160.1bn on March 31.

The group is a further step into its recovery since recording in 2008 its worst year since 1965.

Berkshire has also bid $3.25bn in an unsolicited offer for Transatlantic Holdings Inc, seeking to break up a deal the target company had reached with another insurer. The group has been given until today's close of business to respond to the offer.