Warren Buffett picks another little-known successor

NEW YORK/BOSTON – Warren Buffett advanced his succession plan on Monday by naming Ted Weschler, a low-profile hedge fund manager who has produced out-sized returns in the last decade, to help manage the investments of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Weschler, 50, will start at the company early next year and work with Todd Combs, who joined Berkshire last year, to manage its equity portfolios. Buffett, 81, has said he may also bring in a third manager, but meanwhile he continues to oversee the lion’s share of the company’s US$52,36 billion in US equities.Weschler, like Combs before him, has succeeded while keeping a low profile far from the canyons of Wall Street.As of June 30, Weschler’s Peninsula Capital Advisors had long positions in about US$2 billion worth of stock, according to regulatory filings. Combs was managing about US$400 million when he was hired.Combs and Weschler appear to have different strengths, with Combs having focused more on financial stocks while Weschler appears to have favoured communications-related picks. Bringing them together may work well, according to some experts.’It seems they might complement one another,’ said David Kass, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland who has studied Buffett and his work. ‘Weschler will bring diversification and expertise outside of the financial sector to Berkshire Hathaway.’Since Combs started with Berkshire, Buffett has made clear there would be more people added to the investment team to eventually replace him. When and how many, however, have been open questions that have weighed on Berkshire’s stock, analysts following the stock have said. Some investors say Berkshire shares are currently at their most undervalued level in a generation.A number of Buffett’s best-known biographers, as well as prominent fund managers including Mario Gabelli, told Reuters Insider they were not familiar with Weschler or his work. The same was true when Combs was appointed last year.Moments after one of the biggest personnel mysteries in finance was lifted and Weschler was named as one of a likely trio of heirs to Buffett as managers of Berkshire’s investment portfolio, Weschler kept to his usual routine. He was at his desk at Peninsula – the hedge fund he founded in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1999 – dialling investors, his receptionist said. – Nampa-Reuters

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