By Anupreeta Das
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charlie Munger dropped the
biggest hint yet that the conglomerate's future chief executive
could either be Ajit Jain, the head of its reinsurance business, or
Greg Abel, who runs its energy business.
In a letter to shareholders sharing his thoughts about the past
and future of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Munger said that Berkshire
would remain a "better-than-normal" company with its current
structure even if chairman and CEO Warren Buffett left the company
tomorrow, his successors were persons of only moderate ability and
Berkshire never bought another large business again.
"But, under this Buffett-soon-leaves assumption, his successors
would not be "'of only moderate ability.'" For instance, Ajit Jain
and Greg Abel are proven performers who would probably be
under-described as "world-class," Mr. Munger wrote. He added that
in some ways, "each is a better business executive than
Buffett."
Mr. Munger also said that neither of the two executives is
likely to leave Berkshire Hathaway or want to change the company's
structure in a big way.
Mr. Munger appeared to be making a hypothetical case in naming
the two men. But analysts and Berkshire shareholders have long
speculated that Mr. Jain, 63, is the most likely candidate to
succeed Mr. Buffett as CEO. Mr. Abel, who is about a decade
younger, has been another name on investors' shortlists.
Both are longtime Berkshire executives. The India-born Mr. Jain
is credited with building Berkshire's massive reinsurance business
from scratch. Mr. Abel, meanwhile, joined Berkshire through its
2000 purchase of a utility company, and has built it into a large
energy provider supplying 11 million customers globally.
For his part, Mr. Buffett said his successor would have to be a
"rational, calm and decisive individual" with the ability to
allocate capital and "fight off the ABCs of business decay, which
are arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency."
In the section of his letter addressing the future of Berkshire,
Mr. Buffett did not list any candidates by name. However, he said
the board and he believe Berkshire has the "right person to succeed
me as CEO... In certain important respects, this person will do a
better job than I am doing."
Berkshire released the letter from its chairman Saturday morning
along with its fourth-quarter and annual earnings report. Since
2015 marks the 50th year of Berkshire under the control of Mr.
Buffett and his right-hand man Mr. Munger, the duo each wrote
sections reviewing Berkshire over the past five decades and laying
out their vision for the future.
Write to Anupreeta Das at anupreeta.das@wsj.com
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