Buffet's Swiss Re Gamble

One investor you can trust with your eyes closed is Buffet "The Sage of Omaha", his portfolio has taken a big hit in this economics turmoil. But, he is not one to worry. Infact he has been on the look out for bargains. The latest is Swiss Re

Warren Buffett is injecting £1.8bn into Swiss Re after the Zurich-based reinsurer admitted suffering heavy losses in the financial crisis.

Swiss Re warned today that it expects to post a total net loss of around 1bn Swiss francs (£600m) for 2008. It no longer has enough capital to sustain its "AA" credit rating, and needs to raise another SFr2bn on top of the investment by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway group.

Buffett, one of the world's richest men, had already bought a 3% stake in Swiss Re last month. He said this morning he was "delighted to have this opportunity to increase our investment in Swiss Re".

The point is will these investments work out as well as in the past?

Given the current situation it just might not.