Warren Buffett has written what he has indicated will be his final annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, ending a 59-year tradition that millions of American investors treat as required reading. The letter, characteristically warm and direct, reflects on six decades of investing, offers final wisdom for individual investors, and formally introduces Greg Abel as the face of Berkshire's next chapter.
"The basic proposition β buy wonderful businesses at fair prices, hold them forever, and let compounding do the work β has not changed," Buffett wrote. "It never will. The challenge is having the temperament to execute it when everything around you is screaming that you should do something different."
Greg Abel has immediately demonstrated his decisiveness. Within 60 days of assuming operational leadership, he completed Berkshire's $11 billion acquisition of Chubb's US specialty insurance lines β the largest acquisition since the BNSF railroad purchase in 2009.
Berkshire's stock price has appreciated 19% year-to-date, outperforming the S&P 500 by 8 percentage points. At $975 billion in market capitalization, the company is approaching its first trillion-dollar valuation β a fitting capstone to Buffett's tenure.
