By Karen Langley

Once a year, fans of Warren Buffett and his style of value investing flock to Omaha, Neb., from near and far. Some from really, really far.

This year, fund manager Aileen Chang is making her way to the site of Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting this weekend from her home in China. Christopher Walsh, who runs a personal-finance website, is coming from New Zealand, and Patrik Rosenquist, from Sweden.

And then there is Yu Shu, an artist who has traveled from Taiwan to a Colorado foundry that has cast bronze sculptures she created of Buffett and his friend and partner, Charlie Munger, who died in 2023. She will carefully pack them into a borrowed car before driving across eastern Colorado and Nebraska.

Thousands of visitors head to Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting each year for the chance to hear from Buffett, the conglomerate's chairman and chief executive, and mingle with fellow enthusiasts. In recent years, some longtime attendees say, the gathering has taken on an increasingly international flavor.

Overseas admirers of Buffett say they are making the trek to Omaha at least partly because they know the legendary stock picker, who is 94, won't be there forever. Others are drawn by the calendar of investment and social events that fill out what Buffett has called "Woodstock for Capitalists."

This year's meeting comes as the investing world wrestles with a trade war, volatile markets and an uncertain outlook for both American companies and their foreign counterparts. The audience in Omaha, and many others watching on television, are eager for words of wisdom from Buffett that might guide them through this uneasy moment.

Travelers from beyond the U.S. have been part of the scene in Omaha since at least the mid-1990s, when Buffett began noting their appearances in his annual letter to shareholders. In the 2000s, he and Munger held receptions for visitors from outside the U.S. and Canada. The number of foreign attendees eventually grew too large to host them at a special event.

"Our count grew to about 800 last year, and my simply signing one item per person took about 2 1 2 hours," Buffett wrote in his February 2010 letter. "Since we expect even more international visitors this year, Charlie and I decided we must drop this function. But be assured, we welcome every international visitor who comes."

This year, Berkshire had sent out more than 138,000 meeting tickets by Friday to shareholders who requested them, including some 3,200 to those who live outside the U.S., according to a person familiar with the matter. The company had also sold more than 6,000 tickets through its eBay listing, charging $5 a pair, to offer seats to those who might not own Berkshire stock.

Berkshire doesn't expect nearly that many people at the weekend's marquee event, a question-and-answer session with Buffett and his deputies on Saturday. Meeting credentials also give access to a shopping exhibit that is the sole attraction for some attendees, and most shareholders who request tickets ask for the four they are entitled to, even if they might ultimately come alone.

Shareholders can also gain entry at the door by showing that they owned shares on March 5, the date Berkshire is using to determine eligibility to vote.

In a sign of Buffett's global appeal, CNBC will webcast the question-and-answer session in Mandarin as well as English.

Not everyone is content to follow along at home. New Zealanders undertaking the big trip can consult a guide Walsh posted on his website, MoneyHub, with his tips on everything from how to traverse the final leg to Omaha (Amtrak) to how to secure a prime spot in the arena ("The earlier you're in the line, the better your seats -- but you will need to run, and run fast, despite security reminding people it's 'no running'").

Walsh attended his first Berkshire meeting last year, intrigued by the festivities surrounding the main event as well as the opportunity to see Buffett. He wanted to return this week to again catch the nonagenarian investor as the headliner.

"If the Rolling Stones are performing every April or every May at that date and you know you can go, you want to keep going," he said.

Chang, a value investor who was born in South Korea but lives in China, first visited Omaha in 2022 to see Buffett and Munger. When she returned the following year, a friend brought her to a meeting of longtime individual shareholders. She found the experience humbling.

"You see these people here who do not speak fancily, who do not use any of those industry jargons," Chang said. "But when you look at their returns, many of them probably beat most of the managers, and they invest very, very long term."

This year she plans to return to the group's gathering and meet with other investors, though she will skip Saturday's big question-and-answer session.

Rosenquist, who works for an insurance broker in Sweden, credits Buffett and Munger for helping to transform how he handles his personal investments. In the past, he would make short-term bets in unfamiliar businesses. Now he takes the long view and sticks to what he knows -- one of Buffett's classic investing tenets.

"Sometimes you need a reminder to not go astray, so that is what it does for me," he said of hearing Buffett speak at the annual meeting. "Of course, I could go and listen to it virtually, but it wouldn't be the same thing."

This will be the 11th Berkshire annual meeting for Yu, a native of China who immigrated to the U.S. as a young adult but now lives in Taiwan to pursue her artistic career. She discovered Munger years ago while educating herself about investing and later became a client of a money manager who regularly attends the Omaha gathering.

"Warren Buffett is more than just a businessman -- he is a great artist as well," she said. "Businessmen and artists, the only difference is we have a different medium as our blank canvas. We manipulate different media to both create something from nothing."

And like her fellow artist, whose portfolio of Berkshire businesses plan to sell candy, sportswear and other merchandise this weekend at the meeting's marketplace, Yu aims to engage in a little capitalism, too.

Her limited-edition, 45-pound bronze busts of Buffett and Munger will be available for sale at $24,000 apiece.

Write to Karen Langley at karen.langley@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2025 20:00 ET (00:00 GMT)

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