Berkshire Hathaway 2014 Annual Report & Letter Roundup

The Berkshire Hathaway 2014 Annual Report and Warren Buffett's Letter to Shareholders was released today. This year's letter, celebrating the company's 50th anniversary of Buffett's ownership, also includes a special letter from Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.

• Buffett and Munger's Letters.
• The Annual Financial Report. This PDF also includes the letters, so if you download this one, you don't need the first link.

Don't have time to read the 148 page annual report? Here are some good articles I have found around the internet today that summarize and highlight.

Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger say their eventual departures won't slow Berkshire Hathaway (Omaha World Herald)

In an essay on the company’s past and future, Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, 84, said it’s likely to keep growing but not as rapidly as in the past, and he said the company might pay its first dividend sometime in the next 10 or 20 years. Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 91, writing directly to Berkshire shareholders for the first time, said that his and Buffett’s eventual departures won’t slow down the company and that Berkshire already has executives qualified to be CEO.

Warren Buffett vows never to spin off Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries (Financial Times)

Warren Buffett has vowed never to spin off any of Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiaries, in a full-throated defence of the “sprawling conglomerate” he has assembled over the past 50 years. [...] “Berkshire is now a sprawling conglomerate, constantly trying to sprawl further,” he said.

Warren Buffett knows who next Berkshire CEO is (CNN Money)

"The board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO -- a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down," he wrote in his latest annual letter to investors. Buffett added that the next Berkshire CEO would be someone that already works at Berkshire and is "relatively young." And while Buffett chose to be coy, Berkshire's vice chairman and long-time Buffett friend Charlie Munger seemed to suggest that it's a two-man race to succeed Buffett. Munger, in his own remarks in Buffett's letter, specifically named Berkshire reinsurance head Ajit Jain and Berkshire Energy CEO Greg Abel as "proven performers who would probably be under-described as 'world-class.'"

If you want a summary of the actual financials reported, there's this one:

Berkshire Hathaway net falls, operating profit rises (Reuters)

Net income fell to $4.16 billion, or $2,529 per Class A share, from $4.99 billion, or $3,035 per share, a year earlier. Quarterly operating profit rose 5 percent to $3.96 billion, or $2,412 per share, from $3.78 billion, or $2,297 per share. [...] Book value per share, which Buffett considers a good measure of Berkshire's worth, rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier to $146,186. For all of 2014, profit rose 2 percent to $19.87 billion, or $12,092 per share, while operating profit rose 9 percent to $16.55 billion, or $10,071 per share.

And finally, a really long one where Wall Street Journal writers live-blogged as they read the letter this morning. It's almost shorter to just read the letter than read their notes. But some of their commentary is interesting:

Analysis: Warren Buffett’s Annual Berkshire Letter (WSJ MoneyBeat)

We’ve read everything through a few times now, and one thing about this year’s letter stands out above all else: Mr. Buffett isn’t writing solely for the people who will read the letter this weekend. He’s clearly hoping this document will be one Berkshire’s leaders will look back on for decades to come. Scattered throughout are instructions to the men and women who will oversee Berkshire after he’s gone, even if they’re not always couched that way. For example, when he writes on page 9 that underwriting profitability “is a religion” at Berkshire’s insurance units, it’s a reminder to guard against a slippage in standards in that part of the company. And when he writes on page 28 that Berkshire’s CEO and board will be very careful before using stock to fund a future acquisition, it’ll later serve as a warning for those executives if they ever consider such a maneuver. And lest the board forget, he says that for a Berkshire CEO, “character is crucial.” He also says that “neither ego nor avarice” should drive him to earn as much as other CEOs of big-name companies. Other parts of the letter use far loftier rhetoric to rally the troops and look to the future. Berkshire rests on “a rock-solid formation” of the company’s existing big operating units. “Looking ahead, Charlie and I see a world made to order for Berkshire,” he says. “Our ambitions have no finish line.”

Berkshire News Briefs - 2/27/15

Berkshire to buy German motorcycle equipment retailer (Yahoo/Reuters)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said on Friday it had agreed to buy German motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer Detlev Louis Motorrad-Vertriebs GmbH for a little more than 400 million euros [$452 million]. [...] Ute Louis, the widow of company founder Detlev Louis, had approached Berkshire about a possible transaction and sold the Hamburg-based company to a Berkshire unit, according to the law firm Beiten Burkhardt, which advised on the purchase. Antitrust approval is required, the law firm said. [...] Detlev Louis has annual sales of 270 million euros, employs more than 1,500 people, has more than 70 outlets in Germany and Austria, and serves 25 countries through online stores, its law firm said.

Fortune wins for finding the best stock photo for the story.

Buffett sets sights on German companies (Reuters)

In an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper on Wednesday, Buffett said that he liked German companies because of the regulatory and legal protection for investors, as well as the global reach of even smaller businesses, such as Detlev Louis Motorrad-Vertriebs, the motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer bought last week. "We are definitely interested in buying more German companies," told the newspaper. "Germany is a great market: lots of people, lots of purchasing power and Germans are productive. We also like the regulatory and legal framework."

Warren Buffett's Transparency Problem (Newsweek)

Berkshire Hathaway, the giant conglomerate run for nearly half a century by lionized investor Warren Buffett, is drawing scrutiny for being less than crystal clear about how it is so profitable. The questions from Wall Street analysts, insurance specialists and corporate governance experts put the spotlight on a behemoth with $517 billion in assets that in recent years has grown increasingly opaque with its financial disclosures. Better known for giving shareholders a staggering return of more than 693,000 percent since its birth in 1965, more than 70 times that of the S&P 500, Berkshire Hathaway, one of the world’s largest companies, is one of the least transparent corporations in America.

Buffett tells deputies to supervise newest Berkshire businesses (Chicago Tribune)

At least four of Berkshire's recent acquisitions — including one on Friday of German motorcycle-equipment retailer Detlev Louis Motorradvertriebs and the deal for battery- maker Duracell announced in November — will be overseen by Buffett's deputies. The arrangements put a twist on the loose, trust-based culture that Buffett, 84, has championed at his company. For years, he's had the chief executive officers of Berkshire's dozens of businesses report to him directly. By delegating more, he's freeing up his time and building capacity in an organization that will someday have to run without him.

MiTek Acquires M&M Manufacturing Company (Herald Online)

MiTek Industries, Inc. [...] announced today that it has acquired M&M Manufacturing, Fort Worth, Texas. M&M Manufacturing is one of the country’s largest producers of sheet metal products, primarily servicing the air distribution and ventilation market. M&M provides a comprehensive range of round, rectangular, oval and spiral ductwork, fittings and accessories for residential and commercial construction. MiTek is a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Johns Manville Invests to Support Growth in Engineering Thermoplastics (Herald Online)

Alert readers will recall that JM announced another factory expansion in Ohio in last week's News Briefs post.

Johns Manville (JM), a market-leading manufacturer of glass fiber products and Berkshire Hathaway company, today announced it will expand its glass fiber operations plant in Etowah, Tenn., to service the increasing needs of the engineered thermoplastics industry. [...] The planned expansion in Etowah includes a new furnace to support the launch of the next generation of global products for reinforced thermoplastic composites. [...] The new furnace, due to start up in mid-2016, will allow for production growth and flexibility within JM’s product families for polyamides, polyesters and polypropylenes that are used in automotive, electrical and consumer applications.

Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Get Bullish on Germany: 3 Key Takeaways for Investors (Fool Germany)

But as noted above, this may be a test case and a way for Berkshire to “dip its toes” in the German and European marketplace before jumping at bigger deals. And because Berkshire’s acquisition model is to buy companies and then let them operate without much interference, it can be a very attractive option for many owners. That may make this deal a signal to EU business leaders that Buffett has open ears for sellers from across the pond.

Donald R. Keough, Who Led Coca-Cola Through New Coke Debacle, Dies at 88 (New York Times)

Donald Keough was a member of the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors.

Donald R. Keough, who led Coca-Cola through the disastrous introduction of New Coke in 1985 and the return of the original formula just 10 weeks later, died on Tuesday in Atlanta, his family said. He was 88. [...] He also helped bring Warren E. Buffett, an old friend from Omaha, onto Coke’s board, where he served for 20 years. Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s investment firm, is Coca-Cola’s largest shareholder, and Mr. Buffett’s son Howard is on its board.

Group 1 director resigns citing Buffett-Van Tuyl deal (Auto News)

A Group 1 Automotive Inc. director has resigned, citing a potential conflict of interest related to her employer, Berkshire Hathaway, and its pending purchase of the Van Tuyl dealership group. The director, Beryl Raff, gave up her seat on Feb. 20, Group 1, the nation’s third-largest dealership group, said in an SEC filing today. [...] Raff has served on Group 1’s board since 2007. She has been the CEO of Helzberg Diamond Shops, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. since April 2009 [...] She remains on the boards of Helzberg Diamond, The Michaels Cos. Inc. and Helen of Troy Ltd., Bloomberg data show.

Warren Buffett's old Cadillac fetches $122,500 at auction (Reuters)

Warren Buffett's 2006 Cadillac attracted a high bid of $122,500, more than 10 times its market value, in a charity auction that concluded on Thursday night. The autographed DTS sedan, with 20,310 miles on the clock, was auctioned on the website Proxibid. A spokeswoman, Dana Kaufman, did not immediately identify the winner. Proceeds from the auction will go to Girls Inc of Omaha, Nebraska, the city where Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc.