Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said during the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday that he plans for his named successor, Greg Abel, to take over the top spot at the end of 2025. When Abel officially assumes the role on Jan. 1, 2026, he will not lack resources: the 94-year-old Buffett's fabled firm is currently sitting on a record $347.7 billion in cash and short-term investments, up from $334.2 billion at the end of last year.
This hoard represents a huge pool of dry powder and also offers a lesson in how firms that are fortunate enough to have a cash surplus should manage those holdings. In Berkshire Hathaway's case, a significant portion of this cash reserve is invested in U.S. Treasury bills.
In general, companies with surplus cash will put it in safe securities, short-term government instruments like treasury bills, and sometimes highly-rated corporate bonds, said Tim Koller, an author of the upcoming eighth edition of the book, VALUATION: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies. But the key is that these are very safe investments, said Koller, leader of the McKinsey corporate finance practice. “The important thing is to keep the cash out of the market until the time is right,” he added.
Most companies only build up excess cash when they don’t have a good use for it, Koller said. “You usually try to minimize the cash,” he explained, “and have to think—what are my investment opportunities for the next three to five years?" And you have to make sure to have the cash flow to do it. Most operating companies minimize cash they can’t use pretty quickly, Koller said.
Berkshire is unique because it’s got steady, reliable cash that's coming from the insurance piece of their business even as Buffett—and Abel—stay on the constant lookout for acquisition opportunities and investments. Berkshire is not constantly focused on generating revenue in the same way as many traditional operating companies. Its cash management approach to holding and deploying cash is different from most other corporations. So it is Berkshire's use of the cash that will be most interesting to see in the coming years, Bret Bero, assistant professor of practice in management at Babson College told Fortune.“My hypothesis is that the investment strategy won’t change strategically since Berkshire has had good returns, but will change tactically as the economic situation changes,” Bero said. Abel, currently vice chairman and a director at Berkshire, has been overseeing all of the non-insurance businesses, a collection encompassing two broad categories: top names in railroads, aerospace, and Abel’s alma mater, energy; and a panoply of marquee consumer brands, ranging from Dairy Queen and Brooks Running to Benjamin Moore paints, Fortune reported.
Bero expects Abel will only bring modest changes to Berkshire. The challenge for the new CEO is to set out a new vision without tarnishing “the legacy of the departing icon,” he said.
Buffett became CEO in 1970 after his investment partnership acquired Berkshire, then a textile business, in 1965. Since Buffett will remain as chair of Berkshire, he'll still have a big say in how the company is run.
Meanwhile, Buffett, made it clear last weekend that he hasn’t been holding off on any investment opportunities to set Abel up to shine as the new CEO.
"I wouldn't do anything so noble as to withhold investing myself so that Greg could look good," Buffett quipped during the question-and-answer session at the annual shareholder meeting. Investors have been wondering when he will deploy Berkshire’s stockpile of cash on a bigger scale, however, it has made some smaller stock purchases.
“We’re running a business which is very, very, very opportunistic … We have made a lot of money by not wanting to be fully invested at all times,” Buffett said. Things get extraordinarily attractive occasionally, and the long-term trend is up, he said. Nobody knows what the market is going to do tomorrow, next week, or next month, he added.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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