By Jonathan Stempel, Suzanne McGee and Tatiana Bautzer
OMAHA, Nebraska/NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) – Greg Abel moved to assure Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that he will invest wisely and manage the conglomerate’s massive cash stake without the burdens of bureaucracy, as he seeks to win over those cautiously hoping he is a worthy successor to Warren Buffett.
Abel, 63, spoke at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, four months after succeeding arguably the world’s most famous investor as chief executive officer.
He must earn the trust of investors now enamored with technology and artificial intelligence, rather than Berkshire’s collection of insurers, retailers and hard-asset businesses in energy, industrials and manufacturing.
“As a conglomerate, we live by the fact that we hate bureaucracy,” Abel said in response to a prerecorded question from Buffett, who also sat in a front-row seat. “We do not intend to be beholden to anyone. We start with that.”
Abel also assured shareholders he would not break up Berkshire, saying it operated effectively and its bench of expertise was strong. “We want Berkshire to endure,” he said. Abel also said he is constantly evaluating opportunities to add to Berkshire’s existing portfolio, whether that is acquiring public or private companies or a piece of a company.
Attendance was down significantly from when Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, who died in 2023, presided over meetings filled with their lively insights and banter about Berkshire, the economy, markets and life.
Buffett and Munger drew capacity crowds in the downtown arena where the meeting took place, but several thousand of the approximately 18,000 seats were empty when Abel took the stage.
He acknowledged his predecessors’ lives and careers by symbolically retiring jerseys bearing their names, which will hang in the arena’s rafters.
BUFFETT SAYS ABEL DOES MORE THAN HE DID
Buffett, for his part, assured the audience that “Greg is doing everything I did and then some,” reprising comments he made last year when he announced his retirement as CEO.
The 95-year-old also praised Apple, one of Berkshire’s most successful investments, and its departing chief executive, Tim Cook. Buffett remains Berkshire’s chairman.
In an interview with CNBC on the meeting’s sidelines, Buffett fretted about a gambling mentality that has taken hold of some investors.
“We’ve never had more people in a gambling mood than now,” he said. “That doesn’t mean investing is terrible, but it does mean that prices for an awful lot of things will look awfully silly.”
Though Berkshire is often considered a microcosm of the U.S. economy, its shares have lagged the Standard & Poor’s 500 by 39 percentage points since Buffett announced at last year’s meeting that he would step down.
Short-term thinking is a problem for a $1.02 trillion buy-and-hold behemoth such as Berkshire, but Abel said Berkshire has a “unique opportunity” to build on its businesses and redeploy capital.
“We can create long-term value for shareholders,” he said.
OPERATING PROFIT RISES DESPITE SLUGGISH CONSUMER
Before the meeting, Berkshire said first-quarter operating profit totaled $11.35 billion, up 18% from a year earlier, when its insurance businesses suffered losses from southern California wildfires.
Several retail businesses struggled with uncertain economic conditions and lower consumer confidence. Some big operations, including the BNSF railroad, posted higher profit. While Berkshire reported improved first-quarter performance from the conglomerate’s insurance businesses, Abel told investors that the sector faces competitive headwinds.
Berkshire’s lagging stock price in part reflects Abel’s and Buffett’s decisions not to hastily deploy more of its cash, which reached a record $380.2 billion at the end of March. Berkshire saw some value in its own stock, repurchasing $234 million in the first quarter, its first buybacks since May 2024.
At the end of the meeting, Berkshire shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to publish a report discussing how the conglomerate oversees its more than 387,000 employees at nearly 200 businesses.
“Greg has a formidable challenge, replacing the greatest investor who ever lived,” said Paul Lountzis, a money manager attending his 34th Berkshire annual meeting.
KNOW WHEN TO SAY ‘NO’
Abel adhered to Buffett’s mantra of patience, saying he would like to hold investments “forever” and not plow into any without understanding their economic prospects and risks.
“It doesn’t mean you need to deploy all your capital and spend all your money,” he said.
He agreed with Berkshire’s longtime insurance chief, Ajit Jain, who also answered questions from the stage, that it was important to say “no” if an investment did not look right.
“It is very difficult to sit there and do nothing,” Jain said, “while everyone else is being wined and dined by brokers and taken to London.”
Abel praised a recent Oregon appeals court ruling that, for now, spared Berkshire’s PacifiCorp unit from billions of dollars of potential liabilities for wildfires in 2020 that the utility maintains it did not cause.
“We’re back to first base” on the legal side, he said, meaning the threat has lessened.
Tariffs remain an issue, with Abel saying Berkshire operating businesses have “a lot to sort out” in collecting refunds, while Katie Farmer, chief executive of the Berkshire-owned BNSF railroad, said customers still face uncertainty even after having “adapted and adjusted” to rising tariffs.
LINES ARE SHORTER
The meeting is the centerpiece of a weekend of shareholder events around Omaha, including investment conferences, private get-togethers, and shopping from Berkshire-owned businesses in an exhibit hall adjacent to the arena.
Fewer people shopped. While thousands lined up outside the arena before doors opened at 7 a.m., the lines were considerably shorter than in recent years.
“I wanted to soak in the atmosphere and network with finance professionals,” said Jobby Chin, a finance student from Singapore attending her first meeting, who said she got in line at 2 a.m.
Michael DiDonna, a fashion photographer from Oyster Bay, New York, said he arrived at 3:10 a.m. for his fifth meeting. “I want to feel a part of the monumental shift at the company,” he said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Omaha, Nebraska; additional reporting by Suzanne McGee and Tatiana Bautzer, Editing by Megan Davies, Colin Barr, Edmund Klamann, Rod Nickel and Alistair Bell)
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