National Post (National Edition)
How to beat Buffett’s guest list
Manitou slips 60 clients into annual jamboree
What do 15 University of Nebraska students, an aircraft chartered from Canada’s North and the one-time advance man for former prime minister Brian Mulroney have in common?
All played key roles last Saturday in a mission to get more than 60 clients of private, Toronto-based Manitou Investment Management some highly sought-after seats at Warren Buffett’s Q&A session at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Ne. on Saturday.
That’s harder than it sounds at a meeting where every Berkshire shareholder, from the smallest to the largest, is only allowed four tickets.
But this year’s event, part of a three-day festival famously dubbed the Woodstock for capitalists, was especially noteworthy.
The event marked the 50th anniversary of Warren Buffett’s elevation to the chief executive slot at the company that now boasts a market cap of US$360 billion and whose shares each cost about US$220,000.
For Manitou’s clients the reward was to hear Buffet, 84, and his number two, Charlie Munger, 91, discuss investment matters for almost five hours. Manitou did not disclose how many Berkshire shares it owns.
“I am very proud of our team,” said Mark Gaskin, Manitou’s managing director, who conceived the idea eight months back of doing something special to commemorate Buffet’s half-century at the top,
Two months ago the Toronto-based team began planning its operation. Finding a way to get around the four-ticket maximum was going to be difficult enough. But after booking a 50-seat airplane to ferry clients to Omaha, the original charter airline called shortly after to cancel.
Manitou found help in Canadian North airlines, which specializes in flights to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The plane, a Boeing 737, offered the additional bonus of space for about 80 passengers. “We were happy to give them the business,” said Gaskin.
While that solved the problem of getting to Omaha, it didn’ t solve the matter of ensuring Manitou’s clients could get a seat at the event that always draws a capacity crowd, who always line up before sunrise to grab their set of four tickets. This year’s session was held at the CenturyLink Center, whose main arena holds about 16,000 seats.
“The next issue was to get enough credentials (passes),” said Gaskin, who has been a regular at Berkshire’s Q&A for a few years. “They only give you four credentials per annual report.” That point is made clear in the Berkshire meeting material: “The meeting credentials are required for entry to not only the annual meeting and other related events but also to receive shareholder discount pricing” for vendors at the meeting (value investors being always on the lookout for a deal).
With help from a neighbour who hails from Omaha, Manitou was able to help recruit 15 students from the University of Nebraska eager to make a few dollars. Just before the event, Scott Munnoch, once the tour director for prime minister Mulroney, now a senior counsel at the communication firm Temple Scott Associates, flew down to make advance preparations.
“We got 15 kids and Munnoch went down two days early to get them organized,” said Gaskin. The day of the event, as Manitou’s clients were en route to Omaha in their Canadian North 737, the students-for-hire lined up at the registration desk — each one in a hat sporting a red maple leaf — and announced themselves proxy representatives of a share in Berkshire Hathaway, held in by Manitou.
The plane with Manitou’s clients arrived just 30 minutes before the event started — and when they arrived at the CenturyLink Center, Munnoch was there to steer them to the doors offering the fastest access inside the stadium.
“It was a lovely day, done with military precision and an excellent example of teamwork,” said Gaskin.
The cost of the whole operation, Gaskin says, is classified.