Billionaire investor Warren Buffett was interviewed by CNBC’s Becky Quick Thursday, as fans of the Oracle of Omaha make their annual pilgrimage to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting this weekend.
Warren Buffett on housing, jobs, and Coke
Warren Buffett ‘not spoken’ with Coke directors since vote
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B)’s Warren Buffett says he has not spoken with any of the board of directors since abstaining from voting on its equity compensation plan. CNBC’s Becky Quick reports.
Transcript
reporter: that’s right, ty. heading into this is one thing that everybody has been buzzing about, that’s warn Warren buffett’s decision to sustain — he abstained from the vote last week that kicked up a lot of dust. we caught up with him last night and asked him more about that. and the management may not be doles those out? i wouldn’t be surprised that they’re going to look at it. with you could abstaining with a fair amount of no votes. what they authorized at least in the meeting the other day. they don’t have to do it. they can spread it over a longer period of time. we’ll see what they do. they’ve listened to shareholders before. i think maybe they’ll listen again. have you talked to muktar kent? none of the directors? new york city another mean son. his son happens to be one of the directors. he voted in favor of that equity plan. warren buffett object stained from voting against the plan, but did say they thought it was excessive. david winters is another longtime coca-cola shareholders, he brought up all these questions, started asking about how much it would dilute existing high pressure he said somewhere between 14% and 16%. while buffett agrees the plan is successful, he sees it as more of dilution. we — david winters is also a longtime shareholder. we asked him one more time about the math. the math basically comes from the coca-cola document. you go to page 86, page 66 of the 106789-k, and you can slice and dice this however you want, but at the end of the day, the plan is excessive and not in the shareholders’ best interests. here’s what The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) has to say. they say that the company routinely interacts with shareholders to receive feedback on any matters. we do not share specific details of those interactions. shareholders of the company voted strongly in favor of the plan with 83% of the votes cast supporting the plan, as has been our consistent practice. we will continue to seek input. while cola got the 83% of the shares. they got less of the majority, because so many were abstained. this is an ongoing conversation, i’m sure we’ll hear more about it tomorrow when the shareholder meegts takes place here. back to you.
