Warren Buffett loaned $300 million to Harley-Davidson during the financial crisis. Here's the story of how he helped the motorcycle maker.

Reuters

• Warren Buffett loaned about $300 million to Harley-Davidson during the financial crisis.
• "It was the bridge we needed to get us through a rough time," the motorcycle maker's finance chief said in 2014.
• Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway probably netted about $150 million in profit from the five-year loan, but could have made more than $1 billion if it had invested $300 million in Harley-Davidson stock over the same period.
• "I knew enough to lend them money; I didn't know enough to buy the equity," Buffett later explained.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Warren Buffett loaned a little over $300 million to Harley-Davidson in February 2009, when the famous motorcycle maker was reeling from a one-two punch of weaker demand and a cash crunch during the financial crisis.

A few weeks earlier, Harley-Davidson unveiled a three-part plan to weather the downturn: invest in its brand, cut costs, and find the money to cover its financing division's roughly $1 billion in yearly costs.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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