Berkshire Hathaway 4th-quarter profit up 32 per cent

Buffett said shareholders will be able to make sure he and his partner, Charlie Munger, don’t drift off into “la-la land” during the meeting.

Buffett struck an optimistic tone in the wide-ranging letter, which largely focused on what contributed to his conglomerate’s US$24 billion profit past year and discussed Berkshire’s prospects for the future.

Buffet says “we can thank our government – and luck” for the fact that catastrophic destruction has been avoided since the first atomic bomb was dropped in World War II. “It seems highly likely to me that climate change poses a major problem for the planet”, Buffett wrote.

Buffett says homeowners might not want to live in a low-lying area, but shareholders of insurance companies don’t need to worry about climate change hurting their investment.

Buffett also defended the Clayton Homes subsidiary, whose mortgage practices have been scrutinised because they aim at lower-income home-owners.

Buffett said in his letter that improvements at BNSF were the most important development in 2015. Numerous negative effects of innovation and greater efficiency tend to harm the worker, he said. “Past year was a good one”, wrote Buffett. Mr. Buffett said such concerns are overblown.

In its letter-a yearly ritual widely scrutinized by Wall Street for insight into Buffett’s thinking and investment philosophy-Berskshire also said the performance of its railroad, BNSF, had improved “dramatically” after a troubled 2014. He added that Mark Donegan, the chief executive of Precision Castparts, would be among those deploying Berkshire’s capital through acquisitions. The next CEO will be picked from a short list of Berkshire managers.

Berkshire said gains from investments and derivatives quadrupled to $805 million.

Buffett’s letters are parsed by investors for clues about possible succession.

Berkshire teamed up with 3G Capital to buy Kraft Foods Group Inc and HJ Heinz Co – and promptly announced layoffs at both firms.

Geico’s underwriting profit for the year tumbled almost $700 million to $460 million.

Renowned investor Warren Buffett has a message for presidential candidates lamenting the supposed decline of the country: the United States is better than ever.

Warren Buffett released his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) Saturday morning.

He notes that there will still be economic disruption and pain along the way as business evolves, but that the country needs to make sure it has a solid safety net to help people who lose jobs.

Buffett also devoted more than 1,200 words in his roughly 18,000-word letter to defending Berkshire’s Clayton Homes unit, after articles in the Seattle Times accused the nation’s largest mobile home builder of predatory lending and exploiting black and Latino borrowers.

Profit at the BNSF railroad unit fell 9 percent to $1.08 billion, reflecting lower demand, especially in coal and some industrial products, as oil prices fell.

He said the same situation unfolded at the original New England textile plant of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.