Warren Buffett said: Berkshire Hathaway The company is better positioned than any other company to endure for the long term, as he handed over the CEO role to his successor, Greg Abel, and supported him strongly.
“It’s more likely than any other company I can think of to still be here 100 years from now,” Buffett told Becky Quick in a special interview. A portion of it was broadcast on CNBC on Friday.
Buffett’s full interview will be broadcast on CNBC on Tuesday, January 13th at 7pm ET.
Mr. Buffett formally handed over the CEO role to Mr. Abel on Thursday, ending a legendary 60-year run that turned a struggling textile mill into a trillion-dollar conglomerate with businesses ranging from insurance companies to railroads, with more than $300 billion in cash on the balance sheet.
“Greg will be the decider,” Buffett said. I said, “I can’t imagine how much more he can accomplish in a week than I can accomplish in a month. I’d rather have Greg handle my money than the top investment advisor or top CEO in the United States.”
Berkshire shares trailed the market after Buffett announced his retirement in May. Some investors had wondered whether Mr. Abel could manage a sprawling collection of businesses along with a stock portfolio in a similar way to Mr. Buffett and still command a premium valuation from the market.
Berkshire B shares, 1 year
Mr. Buffett will remain chairman, but said Mr. Abel is a sensible leader who, like him, lives a normal life away from the spotlight.
“He’s not a twisted person. I mean, he likes to play ice hockey with the kids,” he said. “If his neighbors didn’t know him, they would never have imagined that on January 1st he would be at the helm of a company that employs nearly 400,000 people and has plans for about 50 or 100 years from now.”
The 95-year-old investor also said he would not take the stage at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting this year, signaling a quieter public role going forward, a notable shift from the tradition that has drawn tens of thousands of investors to Omaha for decades.
“Everything will be the same,” Buffett said. “I’ll be there. I’m not going to speak at the annual meeting, but I’ll be in the officers’ section.”
