04/05/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | MAY 4, 2026

17

CEO moves to assure Berkshire shareholders

Sri Lanka raises fuel prices by almost 4%

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by nearly 4% yesterday, further fuelling inflation, which more than doubled last month due to the Middle East war. Since March, Sri Lanka has raised fuel prices by more than 35%, while gas and electricity rates have also increased by a similar amount. The island has also rationed fuel following supply disruptions. Yesterday, the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation increased the price of kerosene – used by agricultural machinery – to 265 rupees (RM3.30) a litre, up 10 rupees. Petrol rose 12 rupees to 410 rupees. Diesel was up 10 rupees to 392 rupees. Higher energy prices pushed inflation to more than double, reaching 5.4% in April, according to official data. Fuel and electricity tariffs drove up transport costs as well as food prices, the Department of Census and Statistics said. The island has been slowly emerging from the 2022 economic meltdown, when it ran out of foreign exchange reserves to pay for essential imports such as food, fuel and medicines. However, it was hit hard in November by a cyclone that killed at least 643 people and affected more than 10% of the island’s 22 million population. The storm caused an estimated US$4.1 billion (RM16.2 billion) in direct physical damage to buildings and agriculture, the World Bank said. – AFP Chinese ministry blocks US sanctions against five refineries SHANGHAI: China's Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday it had issued an injunction to block U.S. sanctions imposed on five Chinese refiners accused of buying Iranian oil, according to state news agency Xinhua. The ministry named the five as Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, and so called “teapot” refineries Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group, Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical and Shandong Shengxing Chemical. In April, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Hengli Petrochemical, accusing it of buying billions of dollars in Iranian oil. The Trump administration last year imposed sanctions on the other four refineries, among others. – Reuters

OMAHA/NEW YORK: Greg Abel moved to assure Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that he will invest wisely and manage the conglo merate’s massive cash stake without the burdens of bureaucracy, as he seeks to win over those cautiously hoping he is a worthy successor to Warren Buffett. Abel, 63, spoke at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, four months after succeeding arguably the world’s most famous investor as CEO. He must earn the trust of investors now enamored with tech nology and artificial intelligence (AI), rather than Berkshire’s collection of insurers, retailers and hard-asset businesses in energy, industrials and manufacturing. “As a conglomerate, we live by the fact that we hate bureaucracy,”

“Without local producers and competitive farming, food security in Europe is seriously threatened,“ the BVDM said in a statement to AFP. “Dependence on international markets represents a certain risk,” it added. The crisis has revived worries that European businesses in these sectors will struggle to compete with foreign rivals who face fewer constraints, particularly in terms of environmental standards. Like many others in German industry, Franzke has called for a review of the EU’s carbon trading scheme in order to ease pressure on businesses. The European Commission has said it is looking into the issue. – AFP symbolically retiring jerseys bearing their names, which will hang in the arena’s rafters. Buffett, for his part, assured the audience that “Greg is doing everything I did and then some,” reprising comments he made last year when he announced his retirement as CEO. The 95-year-old also praised Apple, one of Berkshire’s most successful investments, and its departing chief executive, Tim Cook. Buffett remains Berkshire’s chairman. Before the meeting, Berkshire said first-quarter operating profit totaled US$11.35 billion (RM45 billion), up 18% from a year earlier, when its insurance businesses suffered losses from southern California wildfires. Several retail businesses struggled with uncertain economic conditions and lower consumer confidence. Some big operations, including the BNSF railroad, posted higher profit. While Berkshire reported improved first-quarter performance from the conglomerate’s insurance busi nesses, Abel told investors that the sector faces competitive headwinds. Berkshire’s lagging stock price in part reflects Abel’s and Buffett’s decisions not to hastily deploy more of its cash, which reached a record US$380.2 billion at the end of March. Berkshire saw some value in its own stock, repurchasing US$234 million in the first quarter, its first buybacks since May 2024. At the end of the meeting, Berkshire shareholders over whelmingly rejected a proposal to publish a report discussing how the conglomerate oversees its more than 387,000 employees at nearly 200 businesses. “Greg has a formidable challenge, replacing the greatest investor who ever lived,” said Paul Lountzis, a money manager attending his 34th Berkshire annual meeting. Abel adhered to Buffett’s mantra of patience, saying he would like to hold investments “forever” and not plow into any without understanding their economic prospects and risks. – Reuters

o Abel faces challenge of winning investor trust in post-Buffett world, company’s operating profit up 18%

Attendance was down signi ficantly from when Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger, who died in 2023, presided over meetings filled with their lively insights and banter about Berkshire, the economy, markets and life. Buffett and Munger drew capacity crowds in the downtown arena where the meeting took place, but several thousand of the approximately 18,000 seats were empty when Abel took the stage. He acknowledged his pre decessors’ lives and careers by

Abel said in response to a prerecorded question from Buffett, who also sat in a front-row seat. “We do not intend to be beholden to anyone. We start with that.” Abel also assured shareholders he would not break up Berkshire, saying it operated effectively and its bench of expertise was strong. “We want Berkshire to endure,” he said. Abel also said he is constantly evaluating opportunities to add to Berkshire’s existing portfolio, whether that is acquiring public or private companies or a piece of a company.

Abel greets shareholders during the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders’ meeting, the conglomerate’s first since Buffett stepped down after 60 years as chief executive, in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday. – REUTERSPIC

German fertiliser makers and farmers struggle with Iran war fallout WITTENBERG: As Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz roils the global economy, one German town has been scrambling to help make up the shortfall in essential supplies of fertilisers. normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz and the World Trade Organization (WTO) has warned that the blockade there threatens global food security, particularly in Africa and South Asia. The company expects an increase in revenue this year of between 10% and 20%, but stresses this estimate remains uncertain because of market volatility. to the consumers of our products,” Franzke said. “The problem is that our customer, the farmer, might not be able to pass these costs on.” Association (BVDM) pointed out that several European plants have closed in recent years due to costs, even before the current crisis.

One such farmer struggling with the impact of the crisis is Gerhard Geywitz, who relies on nitrogen-based fertilisers at his farm in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Speaking to AFP in his cornfield, he said that since the war began, the price of fertiliser has jumped by 50%. He explained that as cereal prices on the world market have remained stable, he has had to absorb the cost and can’t pass it on. If the war drags on, Geywitz worries about “a fertiliser shortage by next year”. “For this reason we’ve decided to stock up now, before prices become exorbitant,” Geywitz said. The German Fertiliser Producers’

SKW’s CEO Carsten Franzke says that the company is not a “war profiteer” and will probably just break even once soaring energy costs are also taken into account. Around 80% of the company’s production is powered by gas, which has doubled in price since the conflict broke out on February 28. Like much of German industry, SKW had already been struggling with the energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war, which starkly exposed the country’s reliance on Russian gas. SKW posted losses three years in a row as the country strove to wean itself off cheap Russian energy supplies. “We can pass on the higher costs

Wittenberg, better known to many as a cradle of the Protestant Reformation, is also home to a chemical plant founded in 1915, in the midst of World War I. At that time the aim was to produce nitrogen for explosives and fertilisers to circumvent a blockade which prevented certain raw materials being imported from Chile. More than a century later, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “shows that it’s still the same thing today – sea routes can collapse”, Christopher Profitlich, spokesman for the SKW company, which took over the site in 1993, told AFP. A third of the world’s fertilisers

“That’s why it makes so much sense to have production in Europe,” Profitlich said. At SKW’s sprawling 220ha site, a 23km rail network transports urea, ammonia and finished fertilisers, destined for sites across Germany and elsewhere in Europe. SKW is Germany’s largest producer of urea, an essential component of fertilisers. In one of its warehouses, a mountain of acrid-smelling white powder rises several metres high. The plant has been running at full capacity to try to make up the shortfall in supply from the Hormuz blockade.