‘Oracle of Omaha’ stuns shareholders, but pledges to maintain investments in group and says he will still be ‘hanging around’.Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has announced that he will retire from leading his Berkshire Hathaway business group at the end of the year.
Buffet told the group’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday that he would step down as chief executive at the close of 2025, handing over the reins to vice chairman Greg Abel, already known to be his anointed successor.
“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,” said Buffett at the meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
He added that the board of directors would be “unanimously in favour” of his recommendation.
About an hour later, Abel came out to oversee a formal Berkshire business meeting without Buffett. “I just want to say I couldn’t be more humbled and honoured to be part of Berkshire as we go forward,” he said.
Abel, 62, who has been the group’s vice chairman since 2018, managing non-insurance operations, was named Buffett’s expected successor as chief executive in 2021, but it was always assumed he would not take over until after Buffett’s death. Advertisement
Previously, 94-year-old Buffett, known as the “The Oracle of Omaha” because of the influence he wields in business and financial circles, has always maintained he has no plans to retire …
