The much-anticipated annual letter of Warren Buffet to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders finally arrived on Saturday. The letter gave a hint into the year gone by – achievement, struggles and missed opportunities.

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Let’s have a look at the top takeaways from Warren Buffet’s letter:

Lack of major acquisitions:

Berkshire’s emphasis is to grow income and acquire large and favorably-situated firms. Nevertheless, last year the firm missed both the targets. It could not make any substantial acquisitions and operating earnings dropped 9 percent.

A major mistake: In his letter, Buffet acknowledged that his decision to purchase aircraft component maker Precision Castparts in 2016 was a blunder. His firm wrote off $10 billion of the investment. He accepted that he misjudged its future payback and gave more than its value.

Not a conglomerate but a holding company: Buffet stated that his firm was not a conglomerate but a holding company that possesses a mishmash of distinct businesses.

Share buyback: According to Berkshire, its share buyback program has made investors get a bigger portion of the concoction of business it possesses.

Buffet’s Apple portfolio: The tech giant is the pride of Buffett’s portfolio. This is due to its power of repurchases. Berkshire’s investment in Apple costs $36 billion. Berkshire, since then, has got annually $775 million as dividends. Moreover, it has also got an extra $11 billion by selling a small portion of its position. By the way, it still possesses 5.4 percent because Apple keeps purchasing its shares back.

Meeting in Los Angeles rather than Omaha: Instead of its traditional meeting spot in Omaha, this year the company will hold its annual meeting in Los Angeles. On May 1, the firm is looking to hold the meeting and answer shareholder questions virtually. At 1 pm Eastern Daylight Time, Yahoo will live stream the event. At 1.30 pm, Q&A will start and continue till 5 pm.

Don’t mess with the US: In his letter, Buffet restated his long-cherished idea that one should never bet against the USA. He stated that in its short 232 years of existence, there has hardly been any country other than the US for unleashing human potential like America.

First Published:Mar 1, 2021 1:40 PM IST