Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
February 28, 2011 at 04:50 AM
Warren Buffett’s latest annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, released Saturday morning, was upbeat and optimistic despite the current economic environment.
Citing book value increases of 13% in shares over 2010, Buffett enthused over the “highlight of 2010,” the company’s acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), citing the “major cost and environmental advantages” the acquisition has over trucking. He also promised that Berkshire’s money would be behind BNSF’s need to “invest massively” to reap its share of growth in coming years.
Buffett cited Berkshire’s commitment to additional spending and investment within the United States as setting “a new record for capital spending,” and promised that an additional $2 billion over 2010’s property and equipment expenditures would be made at home rather than abroad. That adds to the original $6 billion figure, of which he said 90% was spent in the United States.
Some of that spending will be on BNSF, and some on MidAmerican Energy, since both, as highly regulated industries with long-lived assets and the need for excellent customer service, need not just to maintain their infrastructure but also to anticipate market demands.
MidAmerican, Buffett pointed out, will have 2,909 megawatts of wind energy in operation by 2011’s end, “more than any other regulated electric utility in the country,” thanks to an investment of “a staggering $5.4 billion.”
