Berkshire Hathaway AGM - Buffett and Munger

I recently had the opportunity to visit the United States and attend the Annual General Meeting for Berkshire Hathaway. For those who know me this was probably one of the greatest moments of my life! You see when I was 11, I picked up this book which was called Buffettology and ever since then Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have become investment idols of mine. The textile; loss making company they bought way back in the 1960’s Berkshire Hathaway, has now grown into a US$400 billion conglomerate and is run from little old Omaha, Nebraska. Every year over 30,000 people descend on Omaha to listen to the two great investors talk and answer questions about the state of the US and global economies.

This year they both happily chewed away on their See’s Candies Peanut Brittle (which I highly recommend if you ever get a chance to taste) as well as sipping on their cans of Coca Cola; unperturbed that everyone was listening to their every word and sound effect! Warren and Charlie discussed Berkshire’s cash reserves which are currently over US$90 billion. To put that it into perspective and based on current market capitalisation, they could theoretically buy the whole of Woolworths and ANZ Bank for cash; give or take a few billion depending on the foreign currency conversion. Warren and Charlie joked about their one missed opportunity in Google and their reasoning behind buying into Apple. They also explained their position on Wells Fargo which is one of the largest banks in the US. For those unaware it has recently been mired in controversy due to some unethical selling behaviour by its employees, something which is not uncommon to what has occurred here in Australian banks. Overall it was a great experience and something which made the long trip and the 3am wake up call to get a decent seat all the worthwhile!