Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Warren Buffett, the world’s most famous investor, said he planned to step down from the helm of his sprawling conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, a financial juggernaut that he has built up over the past six decades.
The 94-year-old — known as the “Oracle of Omaha” — said that he would propose that Greg Abel should take over as Berkshire’s chief executive officer at the end of this year.
“The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end and I want to spring that on the directors and get that recommendation,” he said.
Abel, 62, whom Buffett had previously named as his eventual successor, is vice-chair of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations. Buffett said he had not given him, or Berkshire’s other directors, any advance notice, making the announcement at the very end of a historic 60th annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Berkshire is one of the world’s largest conglomerates, managing a portfolio of nearly 200 businesses. Buffett first took it over in 1965 when it was a medium-sized textile maker.
Buffett said that on Sunday he would convene a meeting with Berkshire’s board of directors to answer questions about his decision. “Two of the directors who are my children know what I’m going to talk about. For the rest of them this will come as news,” he added just before announcing his decision.
He added that he “would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases” but that the mantle should pass fully to Abel.
The crowd of tens of thousands of shareholders who had descended on Omaha for the event erupted into a minute-long applause following the announcement.
“This is absolutely monumental,” Christopher Rossbach, chief investment officer of longtime Berkshire shareholder J Stern & Co, said through tears as he left the arena on Saturday afternoon.
“Berkshire Hathaway is an incredible business and an incredible achievement. It stands for everything that is best about American capitalism and entrepreneurship.”
Buffett is stepping down on a high. Berkshire “A” shares — the class held by Buffett himself and many of his earliest investors — closed on Friday at a record $809,808.50, a price that reflected not just his long-term investment success but also the cash pouring in from Berkshire’s operating businesses.
The stock is up 20 per cent since the start of the year, while the S&P 500 index has slid 3 per cent.
Buffett reassured shareholders that even while no longer officially leading the conglomerate, he would hold on to his Berkshire shares. “I have no intention — zero — in selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away gradually.”
Berkshire now makes much of its money from its vast insurance business, which includes companies such as Geico, as well as a myriad other companies from aerospace manufacturing to railways to chocolate shops. The textile business was shut in 1985.
Although he is among the country’s richest individuals with a net worth of around $168bn, according to Forbes, Buffett has maintained a folksy aura, attracting shareholders annually to Omaha for a weekend of festivities. He still only takes home a nominal salary of $100,000, as he has done for more than 40 years.
The death of his longtime friend and business partner Charlie Munger in 2023 increased speculation about when Buffett might step down. On Saturday afternoon in Omaha, the answer finally arrived.
“That’s the news hook for the day,” said Buffett with a chuckle.