Washington: renowned billionaire investor Warren Buffett has announced that he would retire from Berkshire Hathaway by the end of the year. He recommended that Greg Abel of his successor to take over as general manager.
The success of Buffett, associated with his ability to explain his thought in clear sound dicks, made him very influential in commercial and financial communities, making him the nickname “the Oracle of Omaha”.
Several years ago, Buffett had already indicated that Aubel, 62, would be his choice for the successor in an interview with CNBC.
“The time has come when Greg should become managing director of the company at the end of the year,” Buffett, 94 told an annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, the city of Midwest where Berkshire Hathaway is based.
Buffett said he thought that the board of directors would be “unanimously in favor of” its recommendation.
“I would always be dragging and I could be useful in a few cases, but the last word is what Greg said in operations, in the deployment of capital, anyway,” he added.
Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a medium -sized textile company when it bought it in the 1960s into a giant conglomerate, now valued at more than 1 dollars and with liquid assets of $ 300 billion.
The company announced profits on Saturday in the first quarter of $ 9.6 billion, down 14%. This corresponds to $ 4.47 per share, also down.
The net value of buffett from Saturday was 168.2 billion dollars, according to the rich list in real time of Forbes magazine.
“I have no intention – zero – to sell a part of Berkshire Hathaway. I will finally give it,” Buffett told shareholders, who responded with a standing ovation.
“The decision to keep each part is an economic decision because I think that Berkshire’s prospects will be better under the direction of Greg than mine.”
Abel, a long -standing main figure in Berkshire, joined the business group in the energy division in 1992 and sits on the board of directors since 2018.
“So this is the hook of news of the day,” said Buffett.
Trade “should not be a weapon”
Buffett previously used the scene to declare that “trade should not be a weapon”, in the remarks clearly targeting the aggressive use of US President Donald Trump against the countries of the world.
“There is no doubt that trade can be an act of war,” he said, without really mentioning Trump by name.
These comments came while analysts in the United States and abroad expressed growing concern that prices could seriously slow down global growth.
Two months ago, Buffett told an interviewer of CBS that prices “are a tax on goods” – and not an increase in relatively painless income, as Trump suggested – adding: “I mean, the dental fairy does not pay them!”
On Saturday, Buffett urged Washington to continue to negotiate with the rest of the world, saying: “We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best. This is what we did.”
To reach prosperity is not a zero-sum game, with the successes of one country meaning the losses of another, he said. Both can prosper.
“I think that the more the rest of the world becomes prosperous, it will not be at our expense. The more prosperous we will become, the more we feel,” said Buffett.
He added that he can be dangerous for a country to offend the rest of the world while claiming superiority.
“This is a big mistake, in my opinion, when you have seven billion people and a half that does not love you very well, and you have 300 million that make sure the way they have done,” Buffett told shareholders.
Compared to this dynamic, he said, the recent Girations in the Financial Markets are “really nothing”.
