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Berkshire owns roughly 90 businesses in areas as insurance, railroads, energy, food, apparel and real estate. Buffett himself is worth $62.1 billion, Forbes magazine reported. Berkshire owns
roughly 90 businesses in areas as insurance, railroads, energy, food, apparel and real estate. Buffett himself is worth $62.1 billion, Forbes magazine reported. Warren Buffett on Saturday
used his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders to launch vigorous defenses of an aggressive private equity partner and a maligned mobile home unit, as his conglomerate
recorded robust profits. The world's third-richest person and a revered investor, Buffett also injected himself into the contentious 2016 US presidential campaign, lambasting candidates
who talk down the nation's economic future as "dead wrong" - an apparent jab at Republicans and frontrunner Donald Trump. Buffett, who is backing Democratic candidate Hillary
Clinton, also raised a political issue dear to Democrats in his widely-read letter by calling climate change a "major problem for the planet," although not one for
Berkshire's future. Buffett, 85, also made no mention of who might succeed him at Berkshire, which he has run for a half-century, and in passing said he expects to be around at age 100.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company reported a record full-year profit of $24.08 billion, up 21%, while operating profit rose 5% to a record $17.36 billion. Fourth quarter profit was up 32%,
and operating profit rose a larger-than-expected 18%. Berkshire owns roughly 90 businesses in areas as insurance, railroads, energy, food, apparel and real estate. Buffett himself is worth
$62.1 billion, Forbes magazine reported. 3G, CLAYTON But he has critics, and spent about 10% of his roughly 18,000-word letter defending 3G Capital, a Brazilian firm in which Berkshire owns
51% of Kraft Heinz Co , and Berkshire's Clayton Homes mobile home unit. Many shareholders questioned Buffett's compatibility with 3G, an aggressive cost cutter led by Brazilian
billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann. Berkshire and 3G teamed up in 2013 to buy H.J. Heinz and last year merged it with Kraft Foods. Buffett also helped finance 3G's merger of Burger King
with Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons, creating Restaurant Brands International Inc. Following these mergers, 3G slashed thousands of jobs. Buffett acknowledged that while he and 3G
"follow different paths" in running businesses, 3G has been "extraordinarily successful," and more ventures are possible. "Jorge Paulo and his associates could not
be better partners," Buffett wrote. Clayton has been faulted in articles in the Seattle Times for predatory lending and discrimination against blacks and Latinos, which the large mobile
home builder denies. But Buffett called Clayton a careful lender, and said it has escaped major regulatory fines despite 65 state and federal reviews in the last two years. Management
delivers "industry-leading performance," Buffett said. POLITICIANS, CLIMATE CHANGE Buffett praised Berkshire's earnings power, saying that only a catastrophic cyber,
biological, nuclear or chemical attack on the United States posed a "clear, present and enduring danger" to the company. Buffett also rejected the dour economic outlooks polluting
the presidential campaign. Trump has repeatedly said the US economy is in a "bubble" that he hopes will pop before he takes office. "I don't want to inherit all this
stuff," he has said. Buffett said such concerns are overblown. "For 240 years it's been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start," Buffett
said. "The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history." Buffett urged shareholders to reject a proxy proposal that would require greater disclosures about
how climate change might affect Berkshire's insurance businesses. "It seems highly likely to me that climate change poses a major problem for the planet," Buffett wrote.
"But when you are thinking only as a shareholder of a major insurer, climate change should not be on your list of worries." NOT SELLING IBM Buffett touted the BNSF railroad and its
leaders Matt Rose and Carl Ice, calling their $5.8 billion of capital spending to improve customer service after a poor 2014 "money well spent." Though Buffett did not mention
falling oil prices in his letter, Berkshire's annual report said low oil prices may reduce BNSF's profit in 2016 as industrial freight volumes decline. The report also noted
Buffett's $2.6 billion loss as of Dec. 31 in his investment in IBM Corp, but said Berkshire has no intention of selling the stock. Buffett also lauded the work of top insurance
executives Ajit Jain and Tad Montross, and called the hiring of Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who each handle $9 billion of investments, "one of my best moves." Combs was a driver
of Berkshire's $32 billion purchase last month of industrial parts maker Precision Castparts Corp. As to succession, Buffett noted his advancing age and that of vice chairman Charlie
Munger, 92. But Buffett also said he plans to be around on August 30, 2030, his 100th birthday, to announce that Berkshire's Geico unit has passed State Farm as the biggest US auto
insurer. "Mark your calendar," he wrote.