The influential billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Saturday that he will resign as executive director of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year, and will deliver the reins to Vice President Greg Abel.
“I think the time has come when Greg should become the company’s executive director at the end of the year,” said Buffett, 94, at Berkshire’s annual meeting.
He said Abel had not been aware of his plans before the announcement.
Buffett also said he had a “zero” intention of selling any of his Berkshire actions.
The news was also unexpected, although Buffett said he had told his children about his decision.
During his 60 years, Buffett managed to transform Berkshire Hathaway from a medium -sized textile company when he bought it in the 1960s into a giant conglomerate, now valued at more than $ 1 billion and with liquid assets of $ 300 billion.
His success, along with his ability to explain his thinking in Clear Soundbites, has made it very influential in commercial and financial communities, which earned him the nickname of “The Oracle of Omaha”.
Trade ‘should not be a weapon’
Separately, the influential billionaire investor said that “trade should not be a weapon,” in comments clearly aimed at the aggressive use of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, of tariffs against countries around the world.
“There is no doubt that trade can be an act of war,” the famous businessman told the annual shareholders meeting.
Although he did not mention Trump by his name, his meaning was unmistakable, and his comments occurred when analysts in the United States and abroad have expressed a growing concern that tariffs could seriously slow global growth.
Two months ago, Buffett told a CBS Interviewer that tariffs “are a tax on goods”, and not a relatively painless income rise, as Trump has suggested, and added: “I mean, the fairy of the tooth does not pay them!”
Buffett urged Washington to continue exchanging with the rest of the world, saying: “We should do what we do better and what they should do what they do best. That is what we did originally.”
Achieving prosperity is not a zero sum game, with the successes of a country, which means the losses of another, he said, adding that both can prosper.
“I think the more prosperous the rest of the world is, it will not be at our expense; the more prosperous we will be and more secure we will feel,” said Buffet.
He added that it can be dangerous for a country to offend the rest of the world while claiming superiority.
“It is a big mistake, in my opinion, when you have seven billion people and a half that do not like very well, and you have 300 million that are singing somehow about how well they have done it,” Buffet said.
Compared to that dynamic, the recent turns of financial markets are “really nothing.”
Berkshire Hathaway reported on Saturday profits from the first quarter of $ 9.6 billion, 14 percent less.
That works at $ 4.47 per share, also going abruptly.
