By Jonathan Stempel
OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday overwhelmingly rejected six proposals addressing environmental and social policy issues at Warren Buffett’s conglomerate, to which the billionaire investor and his board of directors opposed are all opposites.
By a margin of more than 4 to 1, shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting voted against two proposals that the company’s insurance and energy businesses would disclose more about their efforts to combat climate change, including greenhouse gas emissions.
They also rejected a proposal to further disclose efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Shareholders overwhelmingly voted against a separate environment-related proposal, creating a board-level committee to oversee the safety of the BNSF rail unit and requiring Berkshire to report annually on the measure in which its business operations depend on the “hostile” Chinese government.
Berkshire invested in Chinese electric car company BYD in 2008, although it began reducing that stake in 2022.
The votes were not surprising because Buffett owns special shares that give him a 31% voting stake in Berkshire. This makes it difficult to adopt proposals that Buffett opposes.
Berkshire shareholders also re-elected all 14 members of the company’s board of directors.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Omaha, Nebraska; editing by Cynthia Osterman)
