(New York) Billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC on Monday that the incoming president of the US financial mega-holding Berkshire Hathaway will appoint Greg Appel, putting an end to the multi-year hype about his successor.
“Leaders agree that if something happens to me tonight, Gregg will be responsible tomorrow morning,” Warren Buffett, the world’s sixth-largest fortune with $ 103.7 billion according to TV, said to the Forbes rating.
Some clues in this direction emerged from the company’s general meeting of shareholders on Saturday, without being able to conclude that it would be a formal succession.
The American businessman adds that Ajit Jain, the current head of the group’s insurance division, will take over in the event that Mr. Abel becomes incapacitated.
“They’re two amazing people,” Buffett told CNBC.
And so Warren Buffett, 90, put an end to the years-long hype for his next replacement at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire conglomerate that oversees nearly sixty companies, including the US insurer Geico and the manufacturer of Duracell batteries.
The two men were regularly cited as potential and unknown successors to the group.
Yahoo Finance, via Reuters
Gregory Abel
Canadian Greg Appel joined the company in 1992 in its energy division and oversaw all non-insurance related activities for more than three years.
For his part, American Indian of Indian origin, Ajit Jain, joined Berkshire in 1986 as part of the insurance division he currently heads.
Berkshire Hathaway shares rose 1.09% in the trades leading to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange.
