New York, Oct. 26: Mr Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway on Monday said hedge fund manager, Mr Todd Combs, would join the firm, potentially bringing the company a step closer to solving Buffett’s succession puzzle.
Berkshire Hathaway owns multiple businesses concentrated in insurance as well as billions of dollars in stocks. Mr Buffett, 80 and among the world’s richest men, has run the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate since 1965. Its other interests run from railroads to ice cream.
“The fact that he’s come public with one of the names means he must be pretty confident in Mr Combs, or why release the name. It’s not been his practice,” said Mr James Armstrong, president of Henry H. Armstrong Associates in Pittsburgh.
Mr Buffett said in a statement that he and partner Charlie Munger looked for three years for someone like Mr Combs “to handle a portion of Berkshire’s investment portfolio.”
Mr Combs, 39, has been managing Castle Point Capital for the last five years. It is a long/short equity hedge fund that focuses exclusively on financial services.
He managed $395 million as of July 1, according to an investor letter. From its November 2005 to June 2010, his fund was up 28 per cent, against a 49 per cent drop in his SPDR Financial Services sector fund.