Ajit Jain, Buffett’s insurance leader for nearly 40 years, dumps more than half of Berkshire stake

Ajit Jain, Warren Buffett’s insurance coverage chief and high govt, offered greater than half of his stake in Berkshire Hathaway, a brand new regulatory submitting confirmed.

The 73-year-old vice chairman of insurance coverage operations dumped 200 shares of Berkshire Class A shares on Monday at a mean value of $695,418 per share for roughly $139 million. That left him holding simply 61 shares, whereas household trusts established by himself and his partner for the advantage of his descendants maintain 55 shares and his nonprofit company, the Jain Basis, owns 50 shares. Monday’s sale represented 55% of his complete stake in Berkshire.

The transfer marked the most important decline in Jain’s holdings since he joined Berkshire in 1986. It is unclear what motivated Jain’s gross sales, however he did make the most of Berkshire’s current excessive value. The conglomerate traded above $700,000 to hit a $1 trillion market capitalization on the finish of August.

“This seems to be a sign that Ajit views Berkshire as being absolutely valued,” mentioned David Kass, a finance professor on the College of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Enterprise. 

It is also in keeping with a big slowdown in Berkshire’s share buyback exercise as of late. Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire repurchased simply $345 million value of its personal inventory within the second quarter, considerably decrease than the $2 billion repurchased in every of the prior two quarters.

“I feel at greatest it’s a signal that the inventory shouldn’t be low-cost,” mentioned Invoice Stone, CIO at Glenview Belief Co. and a Berkshire shareholder. “At over 1.6 instances e book worth, it’s in all probability round Buffett’s conservative estimate of intrinsic worth. I do not count on many, if any, inventory repurchases from Berkshire round these ranges.”

The India-born Jain has performed an important function in Berkshire’s unmatched success. He facilitated a push into the reinsurance trade and extra not too long ago led a turnaround at Geico, Berkshire’s crown jewel auto insurance coverage enterprise. In 2018, Jain was named vice chairman of insurance coverage operations and appointed to Berkshire’s board of administrators.

“Ajit has created tens of billions of worth for Berkshire shareholders,” Buffett wrote in his annual letter in 2017. “If there have been ever to be one other Ajit and you would swap me for him, do not hesitate. Make the commerce!”

Earlier than it was formally introduced that Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of noninsurance operations, will finally succeed the 94-year-old Buffett, there have been rumors about Jain in the future main the conglomerate. Buffett not too long ago clarified that Jain “by no means wished to run Berkshire” and there wasn’t any competitors between the 2.