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EARNINGS

Warren Buffett raises stake in Munich Re

US investor Warren Buffett announced on Thursday he had raised his holding in Munich Re, the world's leading re-insurance company.

Warren Buffett raises stake in Munich Re
Photo: DPA

In a statement to financial markets, Buffett said he now owns directly or indirectly more than five percent of the voting rights in Munich Re, after taking options on 1.945 percent of its capital in addition to a previous stake of 3.08 percent owned by his

investment fund Berkshire Hathaway.

Shares in the re-insurance group gained 0.23 percent to €110.10 in midday trading at Frankfurt’s DAX 30 stock index, which was also up by 0.23 percent.

Buffett also owns 3.2 percent of Swiss Re, a rival re-insurer.

JP Morgan analyst Michael Huttner said Buffett’s interest in such groups made sense because they are “really cheap stocks” now. Demand for reinsurance by primary insurers is also forecast to rise, Huttner added.

Re-insurance groups provide coverage for primary insurers while also offering direct insurance themselves and investing in financial markets.

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MUNICH

Four injured as WWII bomb explodes near Munich train station

Four people were injured, one of them seriously, when a World War II bomb exploded at a building site near Munich's main train station on Wednesday, emergency services said.

Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich.
Smoke rises after the WWII bomb exploded on a building site in Munich. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Privat

Construction workers had been drilling into the ground when the bomb exploded, a spokesman for the fire department said in a statement.

The blast was heard several kilometres away and scattered debris hundreds of metres, according to local media reports.

Images showed a plume of smoke rising directly next to the train tracks.

Bavaria interior minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild that the whole area was being searched.

Deutsche Bahn suspended its services on the affected lines in the afternoon.

Although trains started up again from 3pm, the rail operator said there would still be delays and cancellations to long-distance and local travel in the Munich area until evening. 

According to the fire service, the explosion happened near a bridge that must be passed by all trains travelling to or from the station.

The exact cause of the explosion is unclear, police said. So far, there are no indications of a criminal act.

WWII bombs are common in Germany

Some 75 years after the war, Germany remains littered with unexploded ordnance, often uncovered during construction work.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about WWII bomb disposals in Germany

However, most bombs are defused by experts before they explode.

Last year, seven World War II bombs were found on the future location of Tesla’s first European factory, just outside Berlin.

Sizeable bombs were also defused in Cologne and Dortmund last year.

In 2017, the discovery of a 1.4-tonne bomb in Frankfurt prompted the evacuation of 65,000 people — the largest such operation since the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

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