Guru of modern capitalism in a style as legendary as the sobriety of his lifestyle, the American investor Warren Buffett formed over the decades the fifth world fortune thanks to a heterogeneous empire whose reins will give in at the end of the year, at the age of 94.
His group, Berkshire Hathaway, has become the eighth market capitalization in the world, exceeding one billion dollars on Wall Street, the first for an American group outside the technological sector.
This conglomerate has about 180 companies (from Duracell batteries to the American insurer Geico) and shares in carefully selected companies, from Coca-Cola to Bank of America, through Chevron or American Express.
All his life, Warren Buffett, still a good foot at age 94, preferred to invest in the long term in stable companies whose accounts fought. A strategy that won his company, since he took control in 1964, an almost double important performance than that of the S&P 500 stock market index.
The nickname Oracle de Omaha has generated a yield of more than 5,500,000% in Berkshire’s action since 1964, transforming a textile business into bankruptcy into the most valued business in the world.
And this without being a technological giant or a public oil producer. Or even pouring dividends from their shareholders. Between 1965 and 2024, Warren Buffett only remunerated his shareholders once, it was in 1967. “It seemed a bad dream,” according to the billionaire who barely tried dividends.
His company has accumulated a colossal effective of $ 347.7 billion, more than all endowment funds for the main American universities, he said together, he said Bloomberg.
The same house since 1958
Nor the eccentricity in the daily life of Warren Buffett, which shows according to Forbes a fortune of $ 168 billion, one of the only ones who continued to increase from the return to the power of Donald Trump in January.
Regular customer of McDonald’s, the legend makes it an inveterate Coca-Cola drinker, who has lived in the same house since 1958, bought $ 31,500, in his hometown of Omaha (Nebraska), in the center of the country.
His second wedding is sealed with two rings that end in a jewelry in his group. His only known leisure activities: bridge, ukelele and golf. However, he acknowledges that having a private jet facilitates life.
It is not provocative like Elon Musk, he does not try to conquer space as Jeff Bezos or change the world as Mark Zuckerberg.
The discretion of this claimed Democrat, who complains not to pay enough taxes, does not prevent him from distilling clear opinions about the economy and some peaks about Bitcoin, artificial intelligence or the commercial war launched by Donald Trump.
Each year, thousands of small investors go mass to listen to it in the Berkshire General Assembly, designated as the “Woodstock” of the capitalists.
With his great friend, the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, he launched in 2010 “The Giving average”, a multimillionaire club ready to give at least half of his fortune to charity associations.
Harvard failed
During his life, he donated about $ 60 billion, a record, which includes 43 billion at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2024, he announced that his fortune would be bequeathed to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which bears the name of his first deceased woman, and the three foundations led by his children.
Born on August 30, 1930 in a middle -class family, Warren Buffett embarked on the markets at 11 years. He is 13 years old when he had to fill a tax sheet for the first time after his first stock market profits.
He plans to abandon his studies, but faced his father’s veto, a corridor who became a parliamentarian, entered the Business School in Wharton in Pennsylvania and then joined the University of Nebraska.
He failed by Harvard, joined Columbia University in New York.
He began his career at Wall Street, but founded his investment company in 1956, Buffett Partnership, merged in 1965 with the Berkshire Hathaway Textile Group. With his acolyte Charlie Muger, who died in 2023 at age 99, transformed Berkshire into a gigantic conglomerate.
Old economy
This father married for three children, with reader enthusiasm of the financial and generalist press, stripped to find companies and values undervalued in his eyes and wait until they improve.
This does not prevent him from establishing very remunerative agreements, such as when he comes to rescue Goldman Sachs in 2008 or Bank of America in 2011.
Their investments are rather in the old American economy. Apple is one of the few technological values to find thanks to its eyes. After having invested greatly since 2016, Berkshire had liquidated half of his shares in the summer of 2024 for $ 50 billion.
Under his songs like Caballero hides a ruthless businessman. White hair, large glasses, often with a classic suit cut by a color tie, can still discuss much without showing any fatigue sign.
In Ag 2024 of the group, he recognized his fatal character for the first time, throwing shareholders: “I hope they are there next year … and me too!”
His designated successor, Greb Abel, will happen to the group’s head at the end of the year.
Source: BFM TV
