An estimated 40,000 shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. are expected to pack the Qwest Center Omaha on Saturday for their annual get-together with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.
Controversy continues over last month’s resignation by Omahan David Sokol from Berkshire and his stock trading in Lubrizol Corp., the company being acquired by Berkshire for $9 billion. But the issue doesn’t seem to have dampened shareholders’ enthusiasm.
Over the past two months, Berkshire’s home office has sent out between 5 percent and 10 percent more meeting credentials to shareholders than in 2010. If attendance follows the same pattern, last year’s estimated crowd of 37,000 will become the old record.
Questions raised by the Sokol controversy may attract even more attention and attendees.
Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire and the No. 1 attraction for shareholders, announced Sokol’s resignation March 30 and described the stock transactions but has not commented publicly since then.
Sokol recommended Lubrizol as an acquisition, and his shares netted a $3 million gain when Buffett reached a purchase agreement. Criticism of Sokol and Buffett followed the disclosures. A Berkshire shareholder has sued, and federal regulators reportedly are investigating.
Because the annual Berkshire meeting consists mainly of Buffett and Vice Chairman Munger answering questions from shareholders and from a trio of journalists, people wonder what, if anything, they will say when Sokol-related questions come up. One guess from observers: Buffett will make a brief initial statement about the Sokol matter and then decline further comment because of possible legal issues.
No matter what Buffett does or doesn’t say, the Q&A session takes about five hours out of nearly a week of official and unofficial events that Buffett lumps into his “Woodstock for Capitalists.” The 2011 version is set to make Omaha a world center of business attention, if just for a few days.
Only the College World Series brings more visitors to the city, the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau said. Meeting credentials were mailed to all 50 states and to 43 countries.
Most out-of-towners will arrive Thursday or Friday. By then, local Berkshire types will have spent three or four days checking out the discounts at Berkshire’s two biggest local retailers, Nebraska Furniture Mart and Borsheim’s jewelry and gifts store. The discounts are intended for shareholders only, but the stores grant the discounts even if customers have simply borrowed shareholder meeting credentials for their shopping sprees.
Arvin Lee of St. Charles, Ill., a retired production worker for General Mills, is typical of the longtime Berkshire shareholders who head for Omaha every spring.
Lee will drive west on Interstate 80 on Friday, check into the Homewood Suites motel near the 72nd Street exit and then meet up with friends from Baltimore and Peoria, Ill., for the Borsheim’s evening cocktail party. He bought his first Berkshire shares at about $5,000 apiece — they’re worth $120,000 each now — and has attended meetings for nearly 15 years in a row.
“We just go to the meeting and hang out after that,” Lee said. “My friend made reservations at Gorat’s or Piccolo’s. I won’t know which one until I get there.”
He will do some shopping at Borsheim’s and at the convention center during Saturday’s meeting. “I gotta have a couple watches cleaned,” he said. “I think I need another pair of cowboy boots. And I want to see what Charlie’s talking about.”
Next Sunday he’ll carry out one final task in Omaha: “Before I leave I make reservations for the next year.”
A new lodging choice for Berkshire shareholders is the Westin Element Hotel at 3253 Dodge St., part of the Midtown Crossing development. It opened in November and is sold out next weekend, said Amanda Sampino, assistant general manager.
Shareholders/guests will get a gift bag — made of recycled material, following the hotel’s eco-friendly theme — containing snacks, including trail mix, information about the hotel’s “urban neighborhood” and coupons for nearby restaurants.
“This is going to be a really hot place to be,” Sampino said.
There’s at least one private Berkshire-related party scheduled for the clubhouse on top of Midtown Crossing’s central condominium building, and the hotel is on the official shuttle bus route between the Qwest Center, Borsheim’s, the Furniture Mart and other hotels.
Borsheim’s marketing director Andrienne Fay said the store is planning for a small increase in attendance for its Friday cocktail event, which has been the trend for several years. The same large tent will be set up in the parking lot, and shuttle buses will bring in people from Westroads because the cars quickly fill up the parking lots nearby.
After the Saturday meeting, the Nebraska Furniture Mart’s “Berkshire Boulevard Picnic,” from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., with food from Famous Dave’s barbecue, aims at the after-meeting crowd.
But traffic picks up at the store starting as soon as Tuesday, when discounts for shareholders kick in. “We look forward to this every year,” said Robert Batt, executive vice president.
No wonder: The store sold $33.3 million worth of goods during the week surrounding the meeting last year, setting what Buffett said may be a record one-week total for any retail store, ever.
Batt hopes the Mart breaks that record.
“The economy’s picking up,” he said. “Ag prices are high, and the agribusiness people have money to spend.” But falling prices on electronics make it tougher to “make the numbers,” he said. “We sell more TVs than we used to, but they cost a lot less.”
Sunday’s brunch at the Regency Court shopping mall, also for shareholders only, will feature top bridge players, a magician and a chess champion playing several boards at once while blindfolded, but no pingpong. Instead of facing young table tennis champion Ariel Hsing, as he has the past few years, Buffett will be behind the sales counter in the jewelry store.
“It’ll be a fun day,” Fay said.
Omaha’s non-Berkshire groups also will find themselves busier than usual.
The Convention Bureau at 10th and Farnam Streets will extend its hours on Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with a volunteer concierge service to helps people “customize their visit,” said Executive Director Dana Merkel.
The volunteers love to work during Berkshire weekend because they meet so many interesting people from around the world, she said. Last year a shareholder from France showed up with a backpack and no room reservation, and the bureau staff helped him find a room.
“Our part is just to help people feel welcome in our city,” Merkel said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com
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