每年五月的第一个星期六，很多来自全世界的朝圣者将会向Omaha出发，他们的目的只有一个，出席Berkshire Hathaway Inc的年度股东大会。会中，投资者问了巴菲特许多的问题，巴菲特也一一的回复，他提醒投资者不要对Berkshire Hathaway有太高的回酬期望，因为公司在接下来几年的回酬可能低于10%。同时，他也不看好美金汇率。他也提醒投资人不要去预测经济走势，反而应该注重于个股的营运获利。不多说了，看看以下的几份报道吧！
The Star
5/4/2008
Buffett will be the centre of attention today at the annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway Inc, his roughly US$200bil holding company.
Berkshire estimates that 30,000 to 32,000 people, up from 27,000 last year, will fill the Qwest Center in Omaha for what has become known as “Woodstock for Capitalists.”
Shareholders will listen to Buffett and his effervescent sidekick, 84-year-old Berkshire Vice Chairman Charles Munger, answer questions on business, the economy and life.
Berkshire had a good year in 2007.
It boosted profit 20% to US$13.2bil, and revenue the same amount to US$118.2bil, despite increased competition in insurance and several of its more than 70 businesses hurting from the housing slump. Shares of Berkshire, meanwhile, rose 29%.
Buffett is worth US$62bil, making him the world’s richest person, Forbes magazine said. Most of that amount is in Berkshire stock, and all of that stock will someday go to charity.
Berkshire sells such items as bricks, candy, car insurance, carpets, ice cream, jewellery, knives, paint and underwear. About half its business comes from insurance and reinsurance.
The company ended the year with US$44.3 billion of cash, but has since agreed to spend some.
In March, it paid US$4.5 billion for three-fifths of Marmon Holdings Inc, whose products are used in construction and energy. Then on April 28, it deployed US$6.5 billion tied to Mars Inc’s purchase of chewing gum maker Wm Wrigley Jr Co.
Berkshire’s US$75 billion stock cache has included blue-chip names such as American Express Co, CocaCola Co Procter & Gamble Co and Wells Fargo & Co.
Buffett may weigh in on how politicians, regulators and greedy investors mess up the markets.
Shareholders may want to know more about Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp, a bond insurer that Buffett created late last year as rivals struggled with subprime mortgages.
Berkshire’s bond insurer quickly won “triple A” credit ratings.
Succession will also be on people’s minds. Buffett has said Berkshire has three internal candidates to replace him as chief executive officer, and four “young to middle-aged” candidates to become chief investment officer.
And Buffett could offer his views on the 2008 elections.
He has said he plans to support the Democratic Party, but has not endorsed either of its leading candidates for the presidency, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Even so, Buffett gets some things wrong.
Last year, he said subprime mortgages did not pose a “huge danger” to the economy, and that absent surges in unemployment and interest rates, “it’s unlikely that that factor triggers anything of a massive nature in the general economy.”
Official festivities begin Friday evening, after Berkshire releases first quarter results.
Cocktails, food and very long lines will await shareholders visiting Borsheim’s, a Berkshire owned jeweller west of downtown that will hawk memorabilia such as a Berkshire Monopoly game, towels, and license plate frames.
The festivities end at Buffett favourite Gorat’s, which last year served 915 dinners on “Shareholder Sunday.”
Shareholders, meanwhile, will host their own events throughout the weekend. – Reuters
Buffett to investors: Think small
Lower your expectations, advised Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at Berkshire's annual meeting Saturday. They also answered questions ranging from succession plans to the Cubs.
Last Updated: May 3, 2008: 4:24 PM EDT
OMAHA (CNNMoney.com) -- In the Q&A session Saturday morning at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting, CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger repeatedly warned investors to lower their expectations. When a shareholder asked whether Buffett's recent purchases of publicly traded stocks were likely to generate returns greater than 7% to 10% over time, Buffett promptly said no.
"We would be very happy if we earned 10%, pre-tax" on the additions to Berkshire's equity portfolio, said Buffett. "Anyone that expects us to come close to replicating the past should sell their stock; it isn't going to happen. We'll get decent results over time, but not indecent results." Added Munger: "You can take what Warren said to the bank. We are very happy at making money at a rate in the future that's much less than the past... and I suggest that you adopt the same attitude."
"We think Berkshire is an attractive investment [at today's price]," said Buffett. "We don't think it's the most attractive in the world."
Both men made it clear that their preference now is to acquire 100% ownership of private businesses at a "fair" price and to increase BRK's interest in companies that get substantial portions of their earnings in non-U.S. currencies.
"We are happy to invest in businesses that earn their money in euros in France or Italy or sterling in the UK, because I don't have a feeling that those currencies are likely to depreciate against the dollar," said Buffett. "Overall I think that the U.S. continues to follow policies that will make the dollar weaken against other major currencies.... I feel no need to hedge purchases of companies that earn profits in other currencies." Buffett added that major U.S. multinationals, like Coca-Cola, are a natural hedge against the dollar, since they earn most of their profits offshore -- which, he said, "will be a net plus over time."
Asked what's in store for the economy, Buffett said he doesn't have a clue and doesn't care.
"I haven't the faintest idea," he said. "We never talk about it, it never comes up in our board meetings or other discussions. We're not in that business [of economic forecasting], we don't know how to be in that business. If we knew where the economy was going, we'd do nothing but play the S&P futures market."
His simple point: As an investor, you don't need to predict the economic cycle (or even pay much attention to it). Instead, you should focus on evaluating individual businesses if you pick your own stocks -- or, simply buy the entire market in the form of an index fund. When a shareholder asked for the single best specific investment idea Buffett could recommend to an individual in his 30s, Buffett said: "I would just have it all in a very low-cost index fund from a reputable firm, maybe Vanguard. Unless I bought during a strong bull market, I would feel confident that I would outperform...and I could just go back and get on with my work."
In response to a similar question from an investor asking how Berkshire would invest differently if it had only a few million dollars to put to work, Buffett advised him to think small. "That would open up thousands of opportunities," said Buffett. Earlier this year there were "very mispriced bonds" that "we could buy nowhere near enough of to make a difference to Berkshire," but a smaller investor could have exploited. "Most of the opportunities would probably be in small stocks or in specialized bond situations."
From India to China
Asked whether Berkshire will seek to purchase entire private companies based in China or India, Buffett responded: "We would like to. If we get lucky, we'll buy one or two in the next three or four years. I don't know if it will be in China, India, Germany, the U.K. or Japan -- there's a lot of luck in that in terms of families thinking of us specifically.... But you will see the day that BRK owns businesses in both countries [India and China]."
Despite its huge cash hoard, Berkshire won't be paying a dividend anytime soon. "The test," said Buffett, "is whether you can continue to create more than $1 for every $1 you're retaining." He and Munger feel they still can put surplus cash to work and earn a higher return with it than shareholders could on their own, after tax, if BRK paid it out. "If we can turn $1 in dividends into $1.10 or $1.20 on a present-value basis, they're better off if we don't pay out. When the day comes, it should be paid out. But because we still have this ability to redistribute money in a tax-efficient way within the company, we can reallocate it," he said, where it will earn a higher return than shareholders may be able to on their own."
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