Buffett not concerned Berkshire will change after he retires

Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said his life’s work won’t be broken apart by activist investors once he’s no longer at the helm.

“The market value of Berkshire is going to be so great that, even if all the activists got together, they couldn’t do much about it,” Buffett said Saturday at his annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb. He was responding to an investor’s question about how the company’s future leaders would prevent a breakup.

Berkshire owns insurers, electric utilities, factories, car dealerships, ice cream shops and one of the largest U.S. railroads. The company’s future was a focus of the event, which drew a record crowd as Buffett, 84, celebrates his golden anniversary running the business.

Investors have speculated that Ajit Jain and Greg Abel are the leading candidates to replace Buffett. In the company’s annual report this year, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger described both as “world-leading” executives who are in some ways better than Buffett. Jain, 63, runs Berkshire’s namesake reinsurance operation, while Abel, 52, oversees the energy-utility business.

Buffett, who is Berkshire’s controlling shareholder, said the firm’s culture already runs deep and will be around long after he’s gone. For decades, the billionaire has operated the business in a highly decentralized fashion. Managers of its dozens of operating units handle day-to-day decisions, leaving the CEO time to focus on investments and acquisitions in whatever industry presents the best opportunities.