In 1998, Warren Buffett lamented the lack of good investment opportunities for Berkshire Hathaway. He was waiting for what he called his fat pitch, a home-run deal. Instead, the sprawling conglomerate was on the sidelines. “Standing there, day after day, with my bat on my shoulder is not my idea of fun,” he said at the time.

This week, for the first time in six years, Buffett decided it was time to take a big swing.

The hit, an $11.6bn deal to buy insurer-to-toy manufacturer Alleghany, ended a drought that had unnerved investors and raised questions over whether the billionaire investor had the chops to compete with more aggressive private equity bidders. Disclosures in the preceding days also showed Berkshire had built a stake worth about $8bn in the oil producer Occidental Petroleum’s common stock.