By Jonathan Stempel and Carolina Mandl
OMAHA, Neb. (Reuters) -Warren Buffett is welcoming tens of thousands of people to Omaha, Nebraska for the first time since 2019 to attend the annual shareholder weekend for Berkshire Hathaway Inc, including the company’s annual meeting on April 30.
Vice Chairman Charlie Munger will join Buffett on stage to answer five hours of shareholder questions. Two other vice chairmen, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, will also be on hand to answer questions. The meeting will be webcast on cnbc.com.
For previews of the meeting, please click on and
Here are some facts about Buffett and Berkshire.
FACTS ABOUT WARREN EDWARD BUFFETT
Born: Aug. 30, 1930
Education: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Columbia Business School
Family: Buffett has been married to Astrid Menks since August 30, 2006. His first wife Susan Thompson Buffett died in 2004. They had three children: Susan, Howard and Peter. Susan Buffett and Howard Buffett are Berkshire directors.
Net worth: $119.6 billion on April 27, 2022, ranking sixth worldwide. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk ranked first. (Source: Forbes)
Berkshire ownership stake: 16.2% as of March 2, 2022
Berkshire voting power: 32.1% as of March 2, 2022
How Buffett took charge: In 1965, Buffett was a shareholder in Berkshire, then a struggling New England textile company. He planned to sell back his shares for $11.50 each, but the term sheet showed $11.375. An angered Buffett responded by buying all the shares he could, and won control of Berkshire on May 10, 1965. The textile business closed in 1985.
Famous Buffett quotation: “Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.” – Sept. 4, 1991 congressional testimony about Salomon Inc, where Buffett became interim chairman to restore order after a Treasury auction bidding scandal.
Philanthropy: Buffett has since 2006 donated more than $41.6 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. His Berkshire stock will go to philanthropy after he dies.
Home: Buffett has lived since 1958 in the same house on a well-trafficked Omaha street, and does much of his work there. The five-bedroom, 2-1/2-bath home on 0.72 acres was assessed at $998,600 in 2022. (Source: Douglas County, Nebraska)
Diet: Likes steaks, and eats candies from See’s, which Berkshire owns. Estimates that one-fourth of his caloric intake comes from Coca-Cola Co, a longtime Berkshire investment.
Buffett on staying the course in investing: “People who are comfortable with their investments will, on average, achieve better results than those who are motivated by ever-changing headlines, chatter and promises.” (Shareholder letter, Feb. 26, 2022)
FACTS ABOUT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
Leadership: Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer; Charlie Munger, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, vice chairmen; Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, investment managers.
2021 net income: $89.8 billion, including $62.34 billion of investment gains
2021 operating income: $27.46 billion, up 25% from 2020
2021 revenue: $276.09 billion, up 12% from 2020
2021 share repurchases: $27 billion
Cash, equivalents and Treasury bills: $146.7 billion as of Dec. 31, 2021
Stock price: $496,800 per Class A share as of April 27, 2022. Class B shares are worth about 1/1,500th as much.
Market value: about $731 billion as of April 27, 2022, based on reported shares outstanding.
Compounded annual gain from 1965-2021: stock price: 20.1%; S&P 500 including dividends: 10.5% (pre-tax)
Overall gain from 1965-2021: stock price: 3,641,613%; S&P 500 including dividends: 30,209% (pre-tax)
Float (insurance premiums collected before claims are paid, which help fund investments): $147 billion as of Dec. 31, 2021
Selected businesses: Benjamin Moore, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, BNSF, Borsheims Fine Jewelry, Brooks, Business Wire, Clayton Homes, Duracell, Fruit of the Loom, Geico, General Re, HomeServices of America, IMC International Metalworking, International Dairy Queen, Johns Manville, Lubrizol, Marmon, McLane, National Indemnity, Nebraska Furniture Mart, NetJets, Oriental Trading, Pampered Chef, Precision Castparts, See’s Candies
Selected acquisitions: See’s Candies, $25 million (1972); Geico, $2.3 billion (1996); Dairy Queen, $590 million (1998); General Re, $15.9 billion (1998); NetJets, $725 million (1998); Clayton Homes, $1.7 billion (2003); PacifiCorp, $5.1 billion (2006); Iscar, $4 billion (2006); Marmon, $4.5 billion (2008); Burlington Northern Santa Fe, $26.5 billion (2010); Lubrizol, $9 billion (2011); NV Energy, $5.6 billion (2013); H.J. Heinz, $12.1 billion (majority stake, 2013); Van Tuyl (now Berkshire Hathaway Automotive), $4.1 billion (2015); Precision Castparts, $32.1 billion (2016); Duracell, $2.9 billion (2016); Pilot Flying J, $2.8 billion (38.6% stake, 2017; acquiring additional 41.4% stake in 2023); Alleghany, $11.6 billion (2022, yet to close). (Sources: Barclays Capital, Berkshire)
Major stock investments: American Express Co, Apple Inc, Bank of America Corp, Coca-Cola Co, Kraft Heinz Co
Buffett’s “Big Four” accounting for much of Berkshire’s value: (1) insurance operations; (2) 5.6% stake in Apple; (3) BNSF railroad; (4) 91.1% stake in Berkshire Hathaway Energy. (Shareholder letter, Feb. 26, 2022)
Buffett on Berkshire’s “limited” opportunities for stock buybacks: “Charlie and I far prefer the owners we have, even though their admirable buy-and-keep attitudes limit the extent to which long-term shareholders can profit from opportunistic repurchases.” (Shareholder letter, Feb. 26, 2022)
Employees: 371,653
Employees in main office: 26, including Buffett
Succession: Buffett, 91, and Munger, 98, have not publicly signaled any plans to retire. Berkshire’s board has designated Abel to become CEO when Buffett retires, cannot continue or dies. Abel, 59, and Jain, 70, have since 2018 had day-to-day oversight of Berkshire’s non-insurance and insurance units, respectively. Buffett and Munger handle major capital allocation decisions and investments.
Other possible successors: Combs and Weschler may succeed Buffett as chief investment officer. Combs also has been Geico’s chief executive since 2020. Buffett’s eldest son, Howard, is expected to become Berkshire’s non-executive chairman.
Annual meeting attendance: 12 (1965), about 24 (1979), 1,000 (1986), 4,100 (1995), 13,000 (2000), 21,000 (2005), 42,000 (2015, Buffett’s 50th anniversary running Berkshire). (Sources: Omaha World-Herald, Berkshire, Reuters)
Buffett on life and the future: “Charlie and I have been ungodly lucky in many ways. But the luckiest thing was actually being around at this time and place. And we also have these problems in how 200 countries with over seven-and-a-half billion people, and a lot of tensions between them. [H]ow do we actually do this so that mankind, 50 and 100 and 200 years from now, should enjoy the incredibly better life that could be enjoyed while not screwing it up? (Interview with CNBC, May 2021)
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Carolina Mandl in Omaha, Nebraska; editing by Diane Craft)
