By Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Saturday used his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (N:BRKa) Inc shareholders to launch vigorous defenses of a private equity firm and a mobile home unit that critics say employ controversial practices, and to lambaste politicians trying to talk down a still-growing economy.
The billionaire also touched on a wide range of other issues in his widely-read annual letter, including Berkshire's record 2015 profit and calling climate change a major problem.
Now 85, Buffett made no mention of who might succeed him at Berkshire, which he has run for a half-century, but said in passing he expects to be around at age 100.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company reported a record full-year profit of $24.08 billion, up 21 percent, while operating profit rose 5 percent to a record $17.36 billion.
In the fourth quarter, profit rose 32 percent to $5.48 billion, or $3,333 per Class A share. Operating profit rose 18 percent to $4.67 billion, or $2,843 per share, topping the average analyst forecast of $2,814 according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Berkshire owns roughly 90 businesses in such areas as insurance, railroads, energy, food, apparel and real estate. Buffett's leadership has made him an investing legend, and the world's third-richest person according to Forbes magazine.
3G, CLAYTON
But he has critics, and spent about 10 percent of his roughly 18,000-word letter defending 3G Capital, a Brazilian firm with which Berkshire owns a majority of Kraft Heinz Co, and Berkshire's Clayton Homes mobile home unit.
Many shareholders questioned Buffett's compatibility with 3G, an aggressive cost cutter led by Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann.
Berkshire and 3G teamed up in 2013 to buy H.J. Heinz and last year merged it with Kraft Foods (O:KHC). Buffett also helped finance 3G's merger of Burger King with Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons. Following these mergers, 3G slashed thousands of jobs.
Buffett acknowledged that while he and 3G "follow different paths" in running businesses, 3G has been "extraordinarily successful," and more ventures are possible.
"Jorge Paulo and his associates could not be better partners," Buffett wrote.
Clayton Homes has been faulted in articles in the Seattle Times for predatory lending and discrimination against blacks and Latinos, which the largest U.S. mobile home builder denies.
But Buffett called Clayton a careful lender, and said it has escaped major regulatory fines despite 65 state and federal reviews in the last two years.
Management delivers "industry-leading performance," Buffett said.
CLIMATE CHANGE, POLITICIANS
Buffett praised Berkshire's earnings power, saying that only a catastrophic terrorist attack on the United States posed a "clear, present and enduring danger" to the company.
A supporter of Democrat Hillary Clinton for the White House, Buffett also rejected as "dead wrong" the dour economic outlooks polluting the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
"Babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history," he wrote.
Buffett urged shareholders to reject a proxy proposal that would require greater disclosures about how climate change might affect Berkshire's insurance businesses.
"It seems highly likely to me that climate change poses a major problem for the planet," Buffett wrote. "But when you are thinking only as a shareholder of a major insurer, climate change should not be on your list of worries."
BERKSHIRE BUSINESSES
Buffett said heavy capital spending by the BNSF railroad and its leaders Matt Rose and Carl Ice helped reverse poor performance in 2014.
Though Buffett did not mention falling oil prices in his letter, Berkshire's annual report said low oil prices may reduce BNSF's profit in 2016 as industrial freight volumes decline.
The report also noted Buffett's $2.6 billion loss as of Dec. 31 in his investment in IBM (N:IBM) Corp, but said Berkshire has no intention of selling its IBM stock.
Buffett also praised the work of top insurance executives Ajit Jain and Tad Montross, and called the hiring of Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who each handle $9 billion of investments, "one of my best moves."
Combs was a driver of Berkshire's $32 billion purchase last month of industrial parts maker Precision Castparts Corp (N:PCP).
As to succession, Buffett noted his advancing age and that of vice chairman Charlie Munger, 92.
But Buffett also said he plans to be around on Aug. 30, 2030, his 100th birthday, to announce that Berkshire's Geico unit has passed State Farm as the biggest U.S. auto insurer.
"Mark your calendar," he wrote.
Warren Buffett's shareholder letter: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2015ltr.pdf