Andrew Bary

Greg Abel will make his first public appearance as Berkshire Hathaway CEO on Thursday.

Abel assumed the post at year end when Warren Buffett retired after 60 years at the helm. Abel is scheduled to appear on CNBC's Squawk Box at 7 a.m. ET, CNBC confirmed.

Although Abel is doing a TV interview, he didn't hold a quarterly conference call after Berkshire released its fourth-quarter results Saturday, in keeping with Buffett's approach.

Abel wrote in his shareholder letter released Saturday that he would avoid quarterly calls because they are inconsistent with his focus on the long-term horizon. He added that he would "concentrate on quality, not frequency."

Still, Berkshire might have benefited from a conference call after its earnings release generated confusion.

Investors focus on Berkshire's operating profits, which were down 30% in the period. But Berkshire didn't highlight a noncash goodwill write-down of $1.6 billion that depressed results. Most companies would have flagged the impairment and excluded it from operating results because it was one-time in nature.

Instead, the information was buried in the company's 10-K report released Saturday. Berkshire excluded from operating profits a $4.5 billion impairment of its equity stake in Occidental Petroleum taken in the fourth quarter, but did include the $1.6 billion impairment related to goodwill from certain subsidiaries.

Berkshire stock reacted negatively Monday to the earnings and Abel letter, with Class B shares down nearly 5% to $480.17.

Nearly every CEO of a major company does quarterly calls because they are informative to investors. Given Berkshire's complex earnings, a call would be useful. Abel may address some of the issues in the earnings and his letter on CNBC.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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March 02, 2026 19:24 ET (00:24 GMT)

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