Berkshire Investors Praise Greg Abel at Post-Buffett Meeting

(Bloomberg) -- Greg Abel didn’t take long to address the elephant in the room.

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In his first few minutes addressing Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders on Saturday — the first annual meeting without Warren Buffett leading the festivities — Abel took investors back to one year earlier, when Buffett shocked the room and anointed him as its next chief executive officer.

Abel, known as a shrewd operator who’s always looking for ways to improve profits at the $1 trillion conglomerate’s varied businesses, said he had just one thought at the time: The company had already shelled out the money to book the arena for the annual meeting in 2026. With him as the only draw, would they even need it?

As it turns out, they did. While the crowd was smaller, thousands of investors still flocked to Omaha, Nebraska to hear from the new, 63-year-old CEO.

Overall, long-time attendees of the annual meeting say they are sold after Abel’s first solo performance.

“It was a flawlessly executed hand-off to an accomplished, principled person that should be really successful,” said Robert Robotti, president and chief investment officer of Robotti & Co. Advisors. “And much of what Berkshire has been built on will stay.”

Long known as the Woodstock for Capitalists, the event still bore its usual quirky hallmarks: on Friday, shareholders milled around the exhibit hall floor, snapping up Squishmallows of Buffett’s former business partner Charlie Munger and taking pictures with Geico’s gecko mascot.

But there were some noticeable departures from tradition: Abel shared the spotlight with his top lieutenants, giving them the chance to speak directly to investors about their different businesses.

The meeting carried the branding “The Legacy Continues,” seemingly a move to reassure longtime investors that the storied conglomerate can continue to thrive without Buffett as CEO.

Abel has the firm backing of Buffett and Berkshire’s board. Still, the company’s Class B shares have slumped 12.4% since Abel was named CEO. And he has to figure out how to deploy the company’s nearly $400-billion cash pile.

That’s to say nothing of trying to follow Buffett as emcee of the annual meeting. Buffett’s folksy wisdom and bon mots have traditionally accounted for a large part of the meeting’s upbeat atmosphere.

Buffett, Munger Shout-outs

The new CEO honored his legendary predecessors with a few lighthearted moments at the start of the meeting. It kicked off with a video featuring a highlight reel from Buffett’s long run as CEO, set to the theme song from the film “Back to the Future.”

Two jerseys displaying Buffett and Munger’s names and tenures at Berkshire — 60 years and 45 years, respectively — were hung above the main stage. A can of Cherry Coke, Buffett’s favorite drink, was placed on the table next to Abel’s notes.

“It was really nice to see the transition between Warren and Greg and how they found ways to bring Warren in,” Dairy Queen CEO Troy Bader said.

After that, Abel got down to business, delivering a straightforward, thorough update on Berkshire’s various companies and equity holdings. He then answered questions from shareholders alongside Vice Chairman Ajit Jain.

“He gave us a lot of detail on the business, touched on a lot of different businesses, demonstrated that he understood them, understood the risks, understood the opportunities,” said Adam Mead, CEO and chief investment officer of Mead Capital Management, who attended the meeting. “He’s done his homework and he is absolutely the leader that Warren told us he would be.”

Abel, who had never professionally managed money until he became CEO this year, gave shareholders a glimpse of his investment perspective. Abel said Berkshire has identified several firms with interesting management and operations, but isn’t interested in buying or investing in them because of their high valuations.

Though the Buffett-Munger duo’s legendary comedic chemistry was missing, Abel and Jain nevertheless got some applause and a few laughs from the audience.

“There was a very healthy dynamic between Greg and Ajit,” said Mead. “It almost really felt like there was a little bit of a Warren-and-Charlie type of dynamic going on. I thought it was great.”

One of Jain’s answers led Abel to compare him to Munger, who died in 2023. When asked whether Berkshire would consider offering insurance to ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping channel for oil that’s been essentially closed since the start of the war with Iran, Jain quipped, “The short answer is, depends on the price.”

“I like your Charlie answer,” Abel responded.

The CEO also reiterated his faith in Berkshire’s conglomerate structure and said there are no plans to break up the company. The reason Berkshire’s structure works is because of the company’s focus on stamping out bureaucracy, Abel said.

“The ABCs — the arrogance, bureaucracy, complacency that can creep into a company — will kill a company, and we intend to never allow that to happen,” he said.

Power Transition

Though Berkshire Chairman Buffett was absent from the main stage, he still spoke at the meeting, delivering a short address to shareholders from his seat among Berkshire directors that focused on corporate leadership and, more specifically, successful transitions of power.

Taking the example of Apple Inc., Buffett reminded the crowd that virtually no one knew who could successfully lead the iPhone maker after the death of Steve Jobs, and few investors knew who Tim Cook was at the time. Buffett, who invested $35 billion in Apple a decade ago, or about 10% of Berkshire’s resources, said that bet has since turned into $185 billion including dividends, and he thanked Tim for that.

The first shareholder question came from “Warren from Omaha” — Buffett, in an AI deepfake. Abel addressed the technology more broadly in his remarks, noting that Berkshire stands to benefit from its growth given that it owns the utilities that power data centers.

Shareholder Christopher Davis of Hudson Value Partners said he was pleased that Abel laid out how Berkshire is approaching AI.

“To hear that Berkshire operating businesses have adopted the mindset of builders of technology and not just buyers — with coders and engineers on staff — confirms that Greg Abel is bringing Berkshire operations into the modern AI era,” he said.

--With assistance from Jenny Surane.

(Updates with comments from CEO. Earlier versions of this story corrected the spelling of Buffett’s name in the headline and two photo captions.)

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