Buffett to Step Down as Berkshire CEO by Year-End
$Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.A)$
Speaking to shareholders at the company's annual meeting, Buffett was optimistic that the board will approve his recommendation for vice chairman for non-insurance operations Greg Abel to take over the leadership, including investment decisions.
"I have no intention of selling one share of Berkshire," he said in Omaha, Nebraska, noting that the decision was based on his optimism that the company's market value will continue to increase under Abel's leadership. "I would still hang around. I can conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg says in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be."
Buffett said the Berkshire board will have a few months to discuss the transition and ask questions they may have on Abel before voting on the new CEO, which he expects would be unanimously in favor of the new leadership.
CEO said Warren Buffett said Saturday the U.S. fiscal deficit is "unsustainable," adding that the pace of government spending can't continue at its current state.
"We're operating at a fiscal deficit now that is unsustainable," Buffett said at the company's annual meeting. "It gets uncontrollable to a certain point."
Buffett was responding to a question about his thoughts on the net benefit of the Department of Government Efficiency, and whether the impact will be negative or positive for the long term for the U.S.
"It's a job I don't want, but it's a job I think should be done, and Congress does not seem good at doing it," Buffett said. "We've got a lot of problems, always as the country, but but this is one we bring on ourselves," he said.
Buffett said the public utility business isn't as good as it was years ago, citing risks including wildfires that have compounded the challenges faced by the sector.
"Bershire Hathaway Energy is worth considerably less money than it was two years ago," Buffett said. "That happens in some of our businesses. It certainly happened in our textile business."
Berskhire Vice Chair Greg Abel said the company has been trying to reduce the risk of wildfires similar to those that hit California on the company's underlying assets and the liabilities that come with the disaster. The California wildfires have caused billions in catastrophe losses for many US insurers.
"We start by addressing the actual assets, we're maintaining them, and where we invest them, invest into them, so we try to make sure that they're either not causing the fire or potentially even hardening the system as to what can they withstand," Abel said.
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