Click to enter the topic: focus on the 2022 Buffett shareholders' meeting. China stock market news will broadcast the whole process live
For the fans of Warren Buffett, there are two opportunities to read or hear the insights of this "Omaha prophet" every year: one is the "letter to shareholders" he wrote for Berkshire shareholders in February every year, while the other is more interactive and more focused - the Berkshire shareholders' meeting held on the first weekend of May every year.
From April 30 to May 1 local time, the 2022 annual general meeting of Berkshire Hathaway of "stock god" Buffett will be held in Omaha, Nebraska, which will be the first time that covid-19 epidemic has returned offline in more than two years.
The annual Buffett shareholders' meeting is a grand event, which is jokingly called "investment Spring Festival Gala" and "Woodstock Music Festival". In order to listen to the investment wisdom of the "Omaha prophet" and his close partner Munger, tens of thousands of people flock to Buffett's hometown every year, crowding out local hotels and restaurants.
What is the difference between this year's "pilgrimage", which has attracted the attention of the global investment community, and previous years? Let's have a look.
for the first time since the epidemic: the general meeting of shareholders returned offline
Due to the limitation of covid-19 epidemic, offline activities have been cancelled for two consecutive years in this event attracting the attention of global investors in the previous two years. Therefore, the biggest difference between this year's Berkshire shareholders' meeting and previous years is that it has returned offline for the first time since the epidemic.
Last year, in order to facilitate Munger's participation, Berkshire's shareholders' meeting was held in Los Angeles, where Munger lives. This is the first time that the event was held outside Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett lives.
In 2020, the worst year of the epidemic, Buffett and Greg presided over the shareholders' meeting on an empty stage in Omaha, Nebraska, and Munger even regretted not being able to attend.
Although the two online Berkshire shareholders' meetings were also full of goods, both the duration of the activities and the participation of investors were different from those in previous years. In the long history of decades, Buffett and Munger's marathon Q & a session at the shareholders' meeting will last almost six hours. However, in the online live broadcast of the past two years, with the face-to-face audience empty, the duration will not exceed four hours in the end!
Buffett said at the shareholders' meeting in 2021, "I really hope, and I think it is very, very likely that we can hold this event in Omaha next year. I hope our attendance will set a record."
This year, can this offline shareholders' meeting, which has been away for nearly three years, repeat the grand occasion when more than 50000 people went to Omaha at the peak of the past? Obviously, it is worth looking forward to.
successors appear on the same stage. Will the retirement schedule be announced
This year, Buffett, 92, and Munger, 98, will partner again, and Berkshire executives, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, who are regarded as Buffett's "potential successors" in the industry, will also attend. This time, two successors were asked to answer shareholders' questions on the same stage, showing the rhythm of gradual handover. Even Wall Street analysts predicted that Buffett might give a retirement schedule at this meeting.
Last May, Buffett disclosed his successor for the first time in an interview, saying that the board chose Abel to replace him as CEO when necessary Buffett said at the time: "the directors agreed that if something happened to me tonight, Greg would replace me tomorrow morning." Abel, 59, was the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway energy and was appointed as the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway's non insurance business in 2018.
Just before the shareholders' meeting, Ronald Olsen, a close friend of Buffett and a director of Berkshire since 1997, said on the 28th that he fully supported Abel to become Buffett's designated successor. He said: "he has not only won the full trust of Warren, but also the full trust of the board of directors." Olsen praised Abel's management skills, saying that "he knows numbers better than anyone around me and people better than anyone around me." He also said that Abel has established close relationships with dozens of non insurance subsidiaries of Berkshire, including enterprises in manufacturing, railway, retail and other industries. "There is no doubt that he has brought the parent company and its subsidiaries closer together," Olsen said
On April 19, the California Civil Service Pension Fund (CalPERS), the largest state public pension fund in the United States, announced that it would vote for a shareholder proposal to remove Buffett from the post of chairman at the shareholders' meeting, which once caused a lot of waves. The center believes that Buffett's holding the positions of chairman and CEO at the same time "greatly weakens" the roles of the two positions, thus weakening the corporate governance structure.
Christopher bloomstrand, a famous American investor and chairman and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus investment group, believes that Buffett has actually transferred most of the responsibilities of the CEO to Abel and Jain. He is more responsible for capital allocation strategy and maintaining the cultural cohesion of the company in the company. Therefore, the argument of weakening the corporate governance structure is untenable.
flowing investors, iron Buffett
Before the shareholders' meeting, Buffett had an exclusive interview with Charlie Ross, a famous former CBS host. Naturally, the interview did not bypass the topics about his health and retirement. Buffett admits that age does have some effects, such as forgetting some names and reading less quickly than before. He mocked himself as a "declining machine".
But Buffett also said he still feels good and stressed that the important reason that can support him to stick to his work is that he is engaged in "the most interesting job in the world" for him. For Buffett, he usually gets up a few minutes before 7 a.m. so that he can watch CNBC's morning news on time and understand what's happening outside. Then he will assign the day's tasks to traders and enter Omaha's office before the opening.
The performance of the past year seems to indeed prove that the "Omaha prophet" is still old and strong.
In this year's environment where the collective value of the rich in science and technology enterprises has shrunk, Buffett has become the only "top ten rich" whose wealth has not decreased but increased during the year by virtue of the good performance of the value investment target. At the same time, Berkshire's total market value also ranks among the only non technology enterprise among the top ten listed companies in the United States.
Berkshire's class A shares closed above $500000 for the first time in March, setting a record closing high, far surpassing the S & P 500 index, which has fallen more and more this year. Berkshire class A shares are the shares originally issued by the company. Due to the company's insistence on non dividend and stock split, its price soared over time and finally became one of the most expensive stocks on Wall Street.
In fact, Buffett, who has always advocated value investment, has never made a steady profit without losing. Despite being regarded as the "God of stocks" by the outside world, Buffett has never denied his mistakes in investment: Dexter shoes, American Airlines, ConocoPhillips, Bank of Ireland, Tesco
Buffett does not never make mistakes, but has the courage to face, summarize and reflect on his mistakes to ensure "no mistakes". In his letters to shareholders, he often analyzes the pits he has fallen in his investment. It is precisely with this steady state of mind and a clear mind that Buffett can "slowly become rich" in the storm and become a standing investment legend.
■ focus
Q & A is the highlight
top ten hot spots most concerned
The highlight of the shareholders' meeting is a marathon question and answer session.
Buffett and Munger will answer questions from the audience and shareholders. The number of problems may reach 60 and last for 6 hours. There have been countless investment sentences in the middle.
For this year's general meeting of shareholders, combined with the recent market hot spots, the ten hot spots that may be mentioned deserve the most attention.
\u3000\u3000 1. About value investment
Buffett has always been the banner of value investment.
He has always said that he is not buying stocks, but choosing business models and enterprises. We hold stocks based on the expectation of the long-term business performance of the enterprise, not as a trading tool.
\u3000\u3000 2. About covid-19 epidemic
At the beginning of the epidemic, Buffett once copied the bottom of the stock of American Airlines. Finally, the share price almost halved and suffered heavy losses.
Afterwards, he also admitted that his view of the business was wrong. The world has changed a lot because of the epidemic.
Nevertheless, Buffy is still confident in the future. He once quoted Rahm Emanuel, the head of the White House, as saying: "don't waste a serious crisis.".
\u3000\u3000 3. About the Federal Reserve and raising interest rates
Buffett once had a famous saying: even if the chairman of the Federal Reserve secretly told me the monetary policy in the next two years, I would not change anything.
In his opinion, investment is to buy enterprises. If there is no stock market and we are not trapped by the exchange, we will be much better.
For example, when we buy a farm or a building, we should consider how long we can recover the investment, not the price of future sales.
\u3000\u3000 4. About the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
For the current tense international situation, Buffett said in an interview some time ago: we are now approaching the Cuban missile crisis.
And he quoted Einstein as saying: I don't know what the weapons of World War III are, but World War IV will definitely be sticks and stones.
\u3000\u3000 5. About Apple
Buffett has always been full of praise for apple.
He once said: cook, Apple's outstanding CEO, appropriately regards users as first love.
\u3000\u3000 6. About Tesla and musk
In a recent interview, Buffett said: Elon Musk faces fierce competition from general motors, Ford and other companies. But he stood out with a good idea and finally won.
\u3000\u3000 7. About investment opportunities
At the end of 2021, Berkshire's cash and cash equivalents reached US $144 billion, of which US $120 billion was US Treasury bonds, all of which were due within one year.
Buffett said in a letter to shareholders that his preference for owning a business has never changed since he first bought shares on March 11, 1942. There is a lot of cash on the books just because there is no company that meets the Berkshire position standard. So far, they have hardly found anything exciting.
\u3000\u3000 8. About successors
On May 3, 2021, Buffett admitted in an interview with CNBC: "the directors agreed that if I step down, Greg Abel, vice chairman of Berkshire's non insurance business, will take over as CEO."
\u3000\u3000 9. About Byd Company Limited(002594)
Byd Company Limited(002594) is the only Chinese company held by Buffett and the eighth largest heavy position stock.
Buffett once said that the four CEOs he most appreciates are: Bezos of Amazon, mark Donegan of precision parts, cook of apple and Wang Chuanfu of Byd Company Limited(002594) .
\u3000\u3000 10. About China's economy
In a recent interview, Buffett said that China's economy will surpass that of the United States one day.
The population of China is four times that of the United States. Logically speaking, China will continue to grow and China and the United States will become two superpowers.
For the problems encountered in China's development, Buffett said: every country will have problems, as will the United States
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