Washington [US], May 4: Billionaire Warren Buffett has just made a surprising announcement when he said he will retire at the end of the year and nominate his successor, Vice President Greg Abel, in charge of non-insurance operations of Berkshire Hathaway.
At the annual shareholders meeting of the investment group Berkshire Hathaway on May 3 in Omaha (Nebraska, USA), billionaire Warren Buffett stunned the entire hall when he announced his retirement at the end of the year, according to AFP. Mr. Buffett is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
"It is time for Greg to become chief executive officer of the company by the end of the year," Buffett said, expressing confidence that the board would fully support his promotion.
"I'll still be around and I can be helpful in some situations, but the final word will be what Greg says in terms of operations, in terms of capital deployment or whatever," the legendary investor declared.
Billionaire Warren Buffett (95 years old) took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965. From a textile
company, Mr. Buffett shifted to the financial sector, turning Berkshire into a corporation holding many subsidiaries in other sectors such as insurance, railways, energy, retail, stock investment...
Over more than 50 years, Mr. Buffett has helped Berkshire achieve an average return of double that of the S&P 500 index, with a compound annual growth rate of 19.9% compared to 10.4% for the S&P 500. Berkshire Hathaway is now valued at more than $1,000 billion and has $300 billion in liquid assets. On May 3, Berkshire announced a first-quarter profit of $9.6 billion, down 14% compared to the same period last year.
The Sage of Omaha
Billionaire Warren Buffett is considered one of the greatest investors of all time, known as the "Oracle of Omaha". He is so widely followed by investors that the market will fluctuate when his investments are revealed, because so many people will follow his lead. Forbes magazine estimates Mr. Buffett's net worth as of May 3 at $168.2 billion, ranking him 5th in the world.
Also at the conference on May 3, Mr. Buffett said he had no intention of selling Berkshire shares, even just one share, because he believed in the group's prospects under Mr. Greg, according to AFP.
"I have absolutely no intention of selling a single share of Berkshire Hathaway. But I will give it away later. The decision to hold the shares is an economic decision because I think the prospects for Berkshire will be better under Greg's management than under me," Mr. Buffett said.
Mr. Greg Abel is a Canadian businessman (63 years old), joined Berkshire's energy division in 1992 and has been a member of the board of directors since 2018.
On the other hand, billionaire Warren Buffett spent time at the conference talking about the current economic situation, saying that "trade should not be a weapon." He called on the US to continue trading with its global partners and emphasized that achieving prosperity is not a zero-sum game, where one country's success means another's loss.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
