In statement, Warren Buffett is looking forward to 'spice things up' at the annual meeting of the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway this week. This comes after the company declared a 32% return for the previous year may have lulled investors to complacency.
One of the new activities for the May 4 meeting in Omaha, Nebraska would be questions featured from a money manager that bets on a stock's decline in value. Buffett personally handpicked Doug Kass for this job and his job would be to challenge the value of a stock that gained value twice as much as the S&P 500 Index in the last twelve months. The Class A shares of the firm closed at a record US$161,025 per share last April 25.
The private equity icon has spent a lot of time defending the firm he has led for the last forty years during the recent meetings as its share values fell behind the equity benchmark. Many times, his leadership and governance has been questioned and put to the test.
This year though many concerns have been put to rest as investments made during the financial crisis as well as takeovers have added to the earnings of the company. The latest stock market growth has helped build an US$87.7 billion equity portfolio.
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