Warren Buffett is no longer Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO. But he’s still picking stocks, fielding offers, and commuting into the office.
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In a CNBC interview on Tuesday, his first since stepping down as CEO, the famed investor and Berkshire chairman shed light on how his life has changed since Greg Abel succeeded him at the start of this year.
“Well, it’s not much different,” Buffett said, underscoring that he travels to Berkshire’s headquarters in downtown Omaha five days a week.
The billionaire, 95, downplayed his post-retirement contributions to Berkshire: “I don’t accomplish hardly anything,” he said. “It just takes me way longer to do things.”
Buffett said it was “kind of embarrassing how good” Abel is at running Berkshire and overseeing its scores of subsidiaries. Prior to his appointment, for Buffett it had been “easier just to write the letter once a year and kind of do my own thing,” he said.
Berkshire is famously structured as a decentralized web of autonomous subsidiaries, a model that allowed Buffett to focus on finding needle-moving deals and juicy bargains instead of being a hands-on manager.
“Greg covers more ground in a day than I would in a week, even when I was at my peak, let alone my present condition,” Buffett said, adding that even so, he “can still contribute just a tiny bit.”
Buffett told CNBC that he still helps find compelling investments, but he won’t buy any that “Greg thinks are wrong.”
He added that Abel is starting to receive calls from businesses seeking a cash-rich buyer like Berkshire, and he’ll consult with Buffett when those calls come through.
The legendary investor said he cuts off investment bankers in 10 or 15 seconds when they call, whereas Abel speaks to them for longer.
“I don’t know where he gets this time, because he plays hockey,” Buffett said. “It isn’t like he’s as fanatic as I was in terms of running the place, but with no more apparent effort, he just covers so many bases.”
Searching for value
Buffett said he’s continued to struggle to find bargains in a frothy market. He disclosed that he snagged “one tiny purchase” but didn’t elaborate.
The investor also shrugged off the recent correction in stocks, proclaiming “this is nothing” compared to the far more severe drawdowns of the past.
Buffett spoke admiringly of Apple, emphasizing how incredibly useful its products are to consumers and how great a business it is. He estimated that Berkshire made over $100 billion in pretax income on its investment in the iPhone maker.
“Well, I sold it too soon, but I bought it even sooner,” he said. “So, it worked out.”
Separately, the Oracle of Omaha announced he would restart his charity lunch auction with an assist from Steph and Ayesha Curry. He said the proceeds would go to the Glide Foundation and Eat. Play. Learn. Foundation.
Buffett said he scrapped the lunch a few years back, just like he stopped teaching in his 80s after six decades, because “I ran out of gas.”
