Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reveals stake in Charter Communications, tweaks several holdings + MORE Aug 14th

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Puerto Rico’s financially struggling public power company won a big reprieve Thursday, announcing that creditors agreed to postpone payment of $671 million worth of bank loans until next year.
It was the third time this year that creditors allowed the state-owned Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, to delay payments amid growing speculation that it might default on its roughly $9 billion debt.
The power company owes a Scotiabank consortium $525 million and Citigroup $146 million and now has until March 31 to make those payments. The banks will continue to collect interest on those amounts.
“Today’s agreements give PREPA the additional time and financial resources we need to reach a comprehensive solution that ensures our ability to provide a safe, reliable and efficient power supply to all Puerto Ricans for many years to come,” said Juan Alicea, executive director of the power company.
The credit lines allow the power company to buy oil and keep lights on across the U…

Welcome to another Weekend Reading edition, my selections for the best in personal finance from the blogosphere.  This week, I wrote about my financials goals for 2014 and thanks to my friends at 5i Research, I shared some technical details about analyzing Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).
Here are some of my favourite articles and sites visited from the week that was – enjoy friends.
Ian McGugan wrote about retirement strategies for a low (and likely prolonged) bond-yield world.  This was an interesting bucket approach I’ve seen before and I thought the visual was kinda cool.  Also interesting was where most of the assets could be held in bucket # 3 for longer-term investing:  an ETF that focuses on holding Canadian dividend-paying stocks with the ticker VDY managed by low-cost leader Vanguard Canada:

My friends at Boomer & Echo are celebrating four years of success.
Young and Thrifty encouraged you to check out their great series of podcasts, and I’m there too!
Barry Choi wrote about debt…

The Canada Pension Plan fund gained $7.7 billion in its latest quarter, with net assets reaching nearly $227 billion.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (TSX:AQN) has announced a more than 12 increase in its annual dividend, which in future will be paid in U.S. rather than Canadian currency.
The Ontario-based operator of regulated and unregulated utilities across North America said the dividend will increase on an annual basis to 35 cents US from 34 cents Cdn, effectively a 12.4 per cent increased based on midday exchange rates Thursday.
Payments will continue to be made on a quarterly basis, with the increase taking it to 8.75 cents US per share. The first payment under the new regime will be Oct. 15 to shareholders of record on Sept. 30.
“The board made the strategic decision to change to a U.S. dollar denominated dividend to better align APUC’s dividend policy with the currency profile of its cash flows, which are predominantly generated in the U.S.,” the company said in a statement after markets closed.
The announcement came as Algonquin also reported a slight decrease in second-quarter net income from continuing operations, while adjusted earnings were essentially flat…

OMAHA, Neb. – Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company has revealed a new stake in Charter Communications Inc. and made several other tweaks to its $108 billion U.S. stock portfolio.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. filed an update on its portfolio with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.
Berkshire said it owned 2.3 million shares of cable television provider Charter, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut, at the end of June.
Many investors like to copy Buffett’s moves because of his remarkably successful record. But Berkshire’s combined filing includes investments made by two other executives at the company, so it’s not always clear whether Buffett made the decisions.
Berkshire officials don’t routinely comment on these quarterly stock filings, and they didn’t immediately respond to a request Thursday.
Buffett has said investments smaller than $300 million are likely to be the work of Berkshire’s investment managers.
During the second quarter, Berkshire added to its holdings in General Motors Co…