Legendary investor Warren Buffett has said he will be “going quiet” as he sent the last of his famous shareholder letters as chief executive.
The 95-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” also threw his weight behind incoming boss, Greg Abel, and said he had “more than met” his high expectations.
Shares in Buffett’s $1trn company, Berkshire Hathaway, have dipped over the past six months – despite US markets rising – as his days as chief executive tick down.
But in Monday’s letter to shareholders, the world’s 10th richest person downplayed concerns the halo effect dubbed the “Buffett premium” was ebbing away.
He said Abel had “more than met” his expectations and it was just a case of the 63-year-old needing time to get investors’ confidence.
“I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member of government – you name it – that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine,” Buffett wrote.
“He is a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator. Wish him an extended tenure.”
Buffett revealed in May that he was stepping down at the end of 2025 as the US company’s board approved Abel as his replacement.
He has an extremely tough act to follow; Buffett has been at the helm for six decades after turning a failing textile firm into a behemoth that owns more than 60 companies and has stakes in many more.
Buffett will stay on as chairman and confirmed on Monday he will also remain a major shareholder until investors develop “comfort” with Abel’s leadership.
However, he said the days of him holding court at the shareholders’ meeting and writing the introduction to the annual report were over.
“As the British would say, I’m ‘going quiet’,” Buffett wrote.
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With less than two months left, the investing icon admitted he moved “slowly and read with increasing difficulty”, but said he was generally feeling good and was still at the office five days a week.
He also revealed he was accelerating his charitable donations and giving another $1.3bn of shares in Berkshire Hathaway to four family-run foundations.
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Buffett is believed to have donated more than $60bn over the years and is signed up to Bill Gates’s Giving Pledge to donate 99% of his wealth – currently estimated at $148bn by Forbes.
When he dies, his children will have about a decade to give away most of his remaining billions.
