Warren Buffett's retirement announcement, trade war message in shareholders meet | Top quotes

Warren Buffett, chairman-CEO of Berkshire Hathaway business group and one of the richest persons in the world, addressed the company's annual shareholder meeting on Saturday.

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The biggest announcement from Buffett's speech was that he will retire at the end of the year, ending his leadership stint of over 60 years. His successor is likely to be Canadian executive Greg Abel, a board member at Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett had indicated several years ago Abel would be his pick for successor.

"The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end," the veteran investor told shareholders at the meeting in Omaha, where Berkshire is headquartered.

"I believe the board of directors would be unanimously in favour of my recommendation (of Greg Abel as his successor)," he added.

The "Oracle of Omaha" further said he would "hang around" and could conceivably be "useful" in a few cases, but the final word would belong to Abel.

Here are some notable quotes from Warren Buffett's speech:

'No intention of selling (even) one share of Berkshire Hathaway': "I have no intention - zero - of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually," Buffett told shareholders, who responded with a standing ovation, according to news agency AFP.

'Company's prospects will be better under Greg': The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg's management than mine," he explained why he would not sell a single Berkshire Hathaway share.

'Trade can be an act of war': Making arguably the most striking quote of the evening, the outgoing Berkshire Hathaway CEO, without mentioning US President Donald Trump, cautioned against using trade as a weapon.

"Trade should not be a weapon. There is no question that trade can be an act of war."

'We should do what we do best': Calling on Washington to continue trading with other countries, Buffett said, "We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best. That's what we did originally."

'Nations can prosper together': "One country's successes doesn't mean another's losses. Both can prosper. I do think that the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won't be at our expense. The more prosperous we'll become, and the safer we'll feel."

'Dangerous for one country to offend rest of the world': The billionaire investor told shareholders how one country could "offend" the rest of the world while claiming superiority, and such a situation would be dangerous.

"It's a big mistake, in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don't like you very well, and you got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they've done."

'A day will come when Berkshire will be glad to have all the money we do': Berkshire currently sits on $347.7 billion cash. On this, Buffett said, "I just don't see many attractively priced investments I understand these days. But one day, Berkshire will be bombarded with opportunities we will be glad we have the cash for."

'Recent turmoil in markets is really nothing': The billionaire investor was also dismissive of the recent turmoil in markets following Trump's tariffs announcement. He stated, "It is really nothing. Dow Jones industrial average went from 240 on the day I was born in 1930, down to 41 during the Great Depression. This has not been a dramatic bear market or anything of the sort."

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