Buffett Names Castle Point's Combs to Investment Post
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett
Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Guy Spier, chief executive officer of Aquamarine Capital LLC, talks about succession planning at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and hedge fund manager Todd Combs, who has named by Warren Buffett to run a "significant portion" of Berkshire's investment portfolio. Todd Combs, who manages about $400 million in financial-services shares at Castle Point Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut, becomes an investment manager, Berkshire said. Spier speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has hired Todd Combs of Castle Point Capital to manage a “significant portion” of the investment portfolio built by Warren Buffett.
Castle Point is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund focused on financial services companies, according to the website of Stone Point Capital LLC, which provided funding to Combs in 2005. Combs, 39, issued a letter to partners of Castle Point announcing his decision, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement.
Berkshire accumulated equity holdings of more than $50 billion as of June 30, including stakes in Wells Fargo & Co. and Coca-Cola Co., partly by investing premiums from insurance operations. The fixed-income portfolio was valued at more than $30 billion and includes corporate debt and government securities.
For three years, Vice Chairman Charles Munger and I “have been looking for someone of Todd’s caliber to handle a significant portion of Berkshire’s investment portfolio,” Buffett said in the statement. “We are delighted that Todd will be joining us.”
Buffett, 80, has said his responsibilities will be split, upon his death or retirement, among at least three people. A chief executive officer will oversee the more than 70 operating units assembled by Buffett, and one or more investment heads will be appointed to allocate capital and manage Berkshire’s portfolio. Buffett has said his son Howard will probably assume the position of non-executive chairman to preserve the firm’s culture.
Attempts to reach Combs for comment weren’t immediately successful.
To contact the reporters on this story: Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net; Peter Eichenbaum at Peichenbaum@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net
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