Utterly unique, utterly quirky. Berkshire Hathaway is at first glance a jumble sale of stakes in has-been industries, from shoes to reinsurance, and railways to sugary drinks. Yet under legendary investor Warren Buffett, it has churned out 25 per cent annual returns back to the 1970s. While the octogenarian Mr Buffett won't be around for ever, and neither will his even older business partner Charlie Munger, they now have aboard an ace stock-picker from China, Li Lu, who is likely to emerge as one of a group who will ultimately steer the firm. Although Berkshire Hathaway has had a rough couple of years since 2008, the bets are on that it will soon return to its winning ways. The biggest snag is likely to be the minimum investment. As there has never been a stock split, one share costs a whopping $116,390 (£75,000)!
Nestlé is the world's pre-eminent food company, and thanks to its powerful presence in emerging markets, is growing faster than either Unilever or Danone, the other members of Europe's top food trio. For UK investors, the good news is that the Swiss firm is traded on the pan-European exchange SWX Europe (formerly Virt-X), so the Swiss francdenominated shares can easily be bought in London in sterling. The company has a PE ratio of 17.7 and a dividend yield of 3.1 per cent. Analysts see Nestlé increasing earnings by at least 10 per cent in the current year, following a 13.6 per cent rise in operating profits in the first half.
Germany's faceless and awkwardly named utility E.on is the largest provider of electricity in Europe, and a major force in natural gas, too. It owns dozens of smaller companies across Europe, including several in the UK, having hoovered up Powergen in 2002. The attractions of E.on are the same as for any utility, only on a much bigger scale. Spread so far and wide across Europe, E.on is the safest possible play on the safest possible form of consumer spending: power, light and heating. On top of that there is a juicy dividend yield of 6.6 per cent.
Probably the best way to play the most dependable of trends – that Russians will continue to drink – Danish brewer Carlsberg is a unique company. No other drinks firm has such a reach into emerging markets from Cambodia to Oman and from Azerbaijan to Iceland. But it is the Russian market, where the world's heaviest drinkers are switching from vodka to beer, that really drives the firm. Indeed, it was a rise in the rouble that led the company to double its full-year profit growth forecast to 40 per cent. As a big buyer of grain in Russia, Carlsberg is cosily inside the export embargo, while purchases elsewhere have been hedged against rising costs. Like its famous lager, Carlsberg is not the cheapest brewer in the world, but it might be the best.
A dynamic, fast-growing water utility may sound like a contradiction in terms, yet Companhia de Saneamento Basico SP (Sabesp) of Brazil is just that. The company supplies the mushrooming mega city of Sao Paulo, and the rest of the state, with water and sewerage services, and will keep earning so long as the metropolis's population, currently 19m, continues to expand. With a typical income growth of 13 per cent a year, which is four times that of its comparison group, helped by much lower than usual debt. Yet its price-earnings ratio is less than six. The major downside is the miserable yield, less than 1 per cent.
The original Reliance group, which accounted for almost 5 per cent of Indian GDP, was split in 2010 between brothers Anil and Mukesh when their father died leaving no will. Reliance Industries, one arm of the company, has activities in petrochemicals, textiles and retailing, plus life sciences and even solar power. It has little or no debt. Reliance Industries rivals Tata for the title of largest Indian conglomerate, but with 3.4m individual shareholders it is probably the most widely held. As the owner of the seven trillion cubic meter Krishna Godavari gas reserve, it is also a major force in natural gas.
