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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 — widely 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, 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 tomorrow 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 that he “would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases” and promised not to sell a share of Berkshire, prompting wild applause from the 40,000 people in the Omaha convention centre.
“That’s the news hook for the day,” Buffett joked at the end of the meeting.
This is a developing story . . .