Greg Abel presided over his first Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting yesterday, where shareholders hope to learn how the conglomerate built by Warren Buffett can evolve and grow – and resuscitate its severely underperforming stock.
Abel, 63, who became chief executive in January, must earn the trust of investors increasingly focused on technology and artificial intelligence, unlike Berkshire’s collection of insurers, retailers and hard-asset businesses in energy, industrials and manufacturing.
Abel opened the event yesterday by introducing top people at Berkshire. The company raised a banner showing Buffett’s name and his number, 60, for the number of years he served as CEO, to applause from the crowd. Buffett nodded in response.
“We have to excel” across Berkshire’s many business lines, Abel said in his opening remarks. “It’s been our focus and it’ll very much continue to be our focus.”
Unlike in recent years when Buffett, now 95, presided, there were several thousand empty seats at the start of the annual meeting in a downtown Omaha arena, which seats about 18,000.
Buffett’s appearance was a highlight of the first hour of the meeting. “Greg is doing everything I did and then some,” he told the audience, reprising comments he made last year when he announced his retirement as CEO.
In his brief comments to the audience delivered from his seat on the floor among his fellow directors, Buffett praised retiring Apple CEO Tim Cook, who recently announced his departure as chief executive officer more than a decade after he took over from founder Steve Jobs. Apple has become one of Berkshire’s largest holdings over the last 10 years.
“When we made our investment ... we were turning it over to Tim,” who turned that $35 billion stake into a position worth $185 billion “or something” on a pre-tax basis. “We’re very big around here on having other people do the work,” he quipped.
Though Berkshire is often considered a microcosm of the US 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. He remains chairman.
Abel had been Buffett’s designated successor since 2021, but the announcement was a surprise.
“Greg has a formidable challenge, replacing the greatest investor who ever lived,” said Paul Lountzis, a money manager attending his 34th Berkshire annual meeting.
It is unclear how higher inflation and slumping consumer sentiment may have weighed on demand for products and services offered by Berkshire subsidiaries.
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