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- Greg Abel is poised to succeed Warren Buffett as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO at the start of January.BI spoke to five Berkshire gurus about Abel's potential and how Berkshire might change under him.They expect a more hands-on management style, more focus on deals, and maybe even a dividend.
Greg Abel has a big task ahead of him — and the stock market knows it.
The head of Berkshire Hathaway's non-insurance operations will be taking over from a titan of American business when he succeeds Warren Buffett as CEO.
Buffett, a legendary investor and philanthropist, has transformed Berkshire from a failing textile mill into a $1 trillion conglomerate during his 60 years in charge. He's widely regarded as a master delegator, talent spotter, capital allocator, and dealmaker who acquired scores of businesses.
Berkshire shares were up 19% year-to-date before Buffett's shock announcement in early May. They've since slumped 12%, while the benchmark S&P 500 has jumped 11%. The company did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Despite the stock's struggles, the five Berkshire Hathaway gurus Business Insider spoke to are mostly positive about Abel's prospects.
A change in management style
Berkshire Hathaway Energy
Larry Cunningham, the author of several books about Buffett and the director of the University of Delaware's Weinberg Center, predicted a change in management style.
"Greg Abel is an operator at heart — he'll engage more directly with underperforming subsidiaries, unlike Buffett, who was famously hands-off," Cunningham said. "Berkshire will become known for 'intelligent autonomy.'"
Steven Check, the head of Check Capital Management and a longtime Berkshire shareholder, anticipated a similar shift. Berkshire "may actually be managed better" by Abel as he's "more of a hands-on people manager than Buffett, whose number one interest was capital allocation," he said.
Check also nodded to Charlie Munger's 2014 shareholder letter, in which Buffett's late business partner hailed Abel and Ajit Jain, the boss of Berkshire's insurance operations, as "world-leading," and said that "in some important ways, each is a better business executive than Buffett."
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Bill Smead, the founder of Smead Capital Management and a Berkshire investor for more than 30 years, championed Abel as a skilled business acquirer. He said Berkshire's "strength will probably be in buying whole companies because that will be Greg Abel's strength."
Berkshire has acquired many companies during Buffett's tenure, including National Indemnity in 1967, See's Candies in 1972, Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1983, Geico in 1996, BNSF Railway in 2010, Precision Castparts in 2016, Alleghany in 2022, and Pilot Travel Centers over a series of transactions in 2017, 2023, and 2024.
Berkshire Hathaway generated $371 billion in revenue and $47 billion in operating profits last year. It's become so big that there are very few companies it could acquire that would materially boost its bottom line.
Buffett's biggest acquisition to date was buying Precision for more than $32 billion nearly a decade ago. He said at this year's meeting that he would happily shell out $100 billion for the right target.
Abel is set to receive support from Jain along with Berkshire's investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who each manage chunks of Berkshire's roughly $300 billion stock portfolio. The company's biggest holdings include American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, and Chevron.
Smead said Berkshire's "biggest mistake" was not publicly touting Combs and Weschler's track records as investors more often, as this could have reassured shareholders about the post-Buffett era and tempered the recent stock decline, he added.
John Longo — a finance professor, investment chief, and author of "Buffett's Tips" — echoed Smead in predicting Abel would be more active in striking deals.
Longo said he "would not be shocked" to see Berkshire begin paying a small dividend given its "enormous cash balance and strong free cash flow." That could help "attract a new class of investors" and fuel a stock rally, Longo added.
Brett Gardner, an analyst and the author of "Buffett's Early Investments," said that Buffett plans to remain chairman and can "help if needed." He also praised the company's core assets and board, and described Abel as "immensely talented."
He said Buffett was "irreplaceable" but added that, with Abel, "Berkshire is still in superb hands."
