In simple terms: A cheap private-owner security became a controlled capital-allocation vehicle, not a conventional work-out. Berkshire Hathaway is included in the Buffett Partnership special-situations record with an evidence grade of A - named and directly described in the letters.

What Buffett saw

BPL began buying Berkshire in November 1962 around $7.60 per share and reached control in 1965 at an average cost near $14.86. Net working capital alone was about $19 per share at 1965 year-end.

The original attraction was familiar: a listed share trading below a conservative pool of assets. Once control arrived, however, the question changed from 'when will the market close the discount?' to 'what can this corporate shell do with its capital?'

How the situation was meant to work

The weak textile operation released capital that Buffett redirected first into marketable securities and then into insurance and banking. In 1967 and 1968 he appraised Berkshire at $25 and $31 per share respectively, independently of the market quote, because he was now evaluating a changing capital-allocation machine.

The textile business was weak, but Buffett could redeploy capital into securities, insurance and banking. At the Partnership wind-down the shares were distributed to partners, and Buffett planned to keep buying them.

The timeline, capital and risk

Capital disclosed: Average acquisition cost about $14.86 per share by control; BPL later owned 691,441 of 983,582 shares.

Time frame: November 1962 to BPL's 1969/70 wind-down.

Berkshire is famous precisely because hindsight tempts people to choose a later quote and call it the return. That would ignore the actual Partnership outcome: shares were distributed to partners, not sold at a reported exit price.

What happened

Outcome: Control was obtained in 1965; the shares were distributed to partners rather than sold.

What the return means - and the lasting lesson

Return record: No realised BPL exit return was reported.

Using a later market quotation to compute a return would invent an exit. The historical outcome was a transition from bargain security to permanent capital-allocation platform.

This guide is educational information, not a recommendation, investment advice or a substitute for reading the underlying disclosure.