Today's Edition
Washington (AFP, dpa)
US investor and multibillionaire Warren Buffett plans to step down as chief executive of his holding company Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year, he told a shareholders meeting on Saturday.
He plans to propose to the board of directors that his designated successor Greg Abel be appointed to the top post at the end of the year, said Buffet, 94.
He will then be on hand to act as an adviser, but Abel will make the decisions, he emphasized.
Several years ago, Buffett had already indicated that the 62-year-old Abel would be his pick for successor in an interview with CNBC.
"The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end," Buffett, 94, told the annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, the Midwestern city where Berkshire Hathaway is based.
Buffett said he believed the board of directors would be "unanimously in favor of" his recommendation.
"I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be," he added.
Buffett's net worth as of Saturday was $168.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine's real-time rich list.
"I have no intention -- zero -- of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually," Buffett told shareholders, who responded with a standing ovation.
"The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg's management than mine."
Abel, a long-time core figure of Berkshire, joined the business group in the energy division in 1992 and has been on the board of directors since 2018.
"So that's the news hook for the day," Buffett quipped.
Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio includes insurer Geico, railway company BNSF, fast food chain Dairy Queen and battery manufacturer Duracell, as well as stakes in Apple and Coca-Cola.
Berkshire started out as a small textile company which Buffett bought in the 1960s and transformed into a highly successful investment company.
The company's investments have tended to significantly outperform the stock market in the years since.
