Buffett outlines plans to step back as Greg Abel prepares to take over
The 94-year-old billionaire has helmed Berkshire Hathaway for 60 years. (Credit: X / @HiddenGemsInves and X / @DrParsaSalehi)
Legendary investor Warren Buffett on Monday published a letter to shareholders letting them know he will be handing off the duties of writing Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report and speaking at shareholder meetings to his successor, Greg Abel.
Buffett, the 95-year-old chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, wrote that, “I will no longer be writing Berkshire’s annual report or talking endlessly at the annual meeting. As the British would say, I’m ‘going quiet.’ Sort of.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRK.B | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 497.55 | +0.37 | +0.07% |
“Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend. He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure,” Buffett wrote about Abel, who he and the board chose as his successor.
“I will continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving message. Berkshire’s individual shareholders are a very special group who are unusually generous in sharing their gains with others less fortunate. I enjoy the chance to keep in touch with you,” Buffett added.
BUFFETT DONATES $6B IN BERKSHIRE STOCK TO 5 FOUNDATIONS: LIFETIME GIVING TOPS $60B
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett sent a letter to shareholders discussing his plans as he prepares to step down. (Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Buffett wrote about his confidence in Abel to lead Berkshire Hathaway, saying that Abel “has more than met the high expectations I had for him when I first thought he should be Berkshire’s next CEO.”
Warren Buffett selected company insider Greg Abel to succeed him as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He understands many of our businesses and personnel far better than I now do, and he is a very fast learner about matters many CEOs don’t even consider. I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member of government – you name it – that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine,” he added.
Buffett said that he plans to accelerate the sale of his Berkshire shares to speed up his pace of giving to his children’s foundations, saying that the transactions “in no way reflects any change in my views about Berkshire’s prospects.”
WHO IS GREG ABEL, WARREN BUFFETT’S SUCCESSOR AT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY?
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRK.A | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 745,751.37 | +1,251.27 | +0.17% |
He also said that he plans to retain some of his “A” shares of Berkshire stock “until Berkshire shareholders develop the comfort with Greg that Charlie [Munger] and I long enjoyed. That level of confidence shouldn’t take long.”
Buffett said that Berkshire’s businesses “have moderately better-than-average prospects, led by a few non-correlated and sizable gems,” and that the conglomerate “has less chance of a devastating…
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