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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Tens of thousands of investors are expected to flock to the Omaha, Nebraska, arena again Saturday to soak up the wisdom of billionaire Warren Buffett. But Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting will be missing one key ingredient: It will be the first since the death of Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.
“He was the Sriracha sauce at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting,” said investor Bill Smead, a regular at the event for 14 years. “He added a lot of spice to it.”
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Every year for decades, Munger shared the stage with Buffett at the marathon question-and-answer session that is the centerpiece of the event. Munger routinely let Buffett take the lead with detailed answers that lasted several minutes. Then Munger himself would get straight to the point. He is remembered for calling cryptocurrencies stupid, telling people to “marry the best person who wants you,” and comparing many unproven internet businesses in 2000 to “shit.”
He and Buffett functioned as a classic comedy duo, with Buffett providing long-winded productions to Munger’s witty one-liners. Together, they transformed Berkshire from a failing textile mill into a massive conglomerate made up of a variety of interests, from insurance companies like Geico to the BNSF railroad to several large utilities and a range of other companies.
Saturday is scheduled to begin with the company reporting its first-quarter results a few hours before the meeting. In addition to its largest holdings, Berkshire Hathaway owns an extensive collection of manufacturing and retail companies, including Dairy Queen and See’s Candy. His massive stock portfolio is anchored by large holdings in companies like Apple, American Express and Coca-Cola.
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Munger often summarized Berkshire’s key success as “trying not to be stupid consistently rather than trying to be very intelligent.” He and Buffett were also known for sticking to businesses they understood well.
“Warren always did at least 80% of the talking. But Charlie was a great opponent,” said Whitney Tilson, an analyst at Stansberry Research, who was looking forward to his 27th consecutive meeting with a somewhat heavy heart because of Mung’s absence.
However, this absence may well give shareholders room to get to know the two executives who directly oversee Berkshire’s businesses: Ajit Jain, who runs the insurance units, and Greg Abel, who handles everything else. Abel will one day replace the 93-year-old Buffett as CEO.
Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren said he hopes Abel will speak out more this year and show shareholders some of the brilliance that Berkshire executives are talking about. Since Munger revealed at the annual meeting three years ago that Abel would be his successor, Buffett has repeatedly assured investors that he was confident in the choice.
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Experts say the company has a solid culture based on integrity, trust, independence and an impressive leadership team ready to take over.
“Greg is a rock star,” said Chris Bloomstran, president of Semper Augustus Investments Group. “The bench is deep. He won’t have the same sense of humor at the meeting. But I think we all come here to be reminded every year to be rational.”
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Find more AP coverage of Warren Buffett here: https://apnews.com/hub/warren-buffett. Find Berkshire Hathaway news here: https://apnews.com/hub/berkshire-hathaway-inc. Follow Josh Funk online at https://www.twitter.com/funkwrite and https://www.linkedin.com/in/funkwrite.
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