Buffett's Berkshire says vice chairmen Jain, Abel each make $18 million

[March 16, 2019]   By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said its newest vice chairmen, Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, were each awarded about $18 million last year, in the first detailed look at the pay of the men considered the leading candidates to succeed Warren Buffett as the conglomerate's chief executive.

Abel, 56, and Jain, 67, who became vice chairmen in January 2018, both received $16 million in salary plus $2 million in bonus, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Buffett sets compensation for both.

The payouts show Buffett's willingness to pay Berkshire's younger leaders in a manner similar to that at other publicly-traded companies, though Berkshire does not grant stock options.

For more than a quarter of a century, Buffett has taken a $100,000 salary at Berkshire. But his 16.5 percent ownership stake in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company forms the bulk of his net worth, estimated at $84.4 billion by Forbes magazine.

Abel oversees Berkshire's non-insurance operations such as the BNSF railroad, aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts, retail businesses such as Fruit of the Loom and Brooks running shoes, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, where he remains executive chairman and owns 1 percent of the voting stock.

Jain, meanwhile, has long been Berkshire's top insurance executive, and oversees its businesses in that sector, including auto insurer Geico and reinsurer General Re.

In a CNBC interview last month, Buffett said both men were "doing a fabulous job."

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders walk by a video screen at the company's annual meeting in Omaha May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo

Jain also controls about $123 million of Berkshire stock, including shares owned by his wife and a private charity, while Abel oversees about $2 million, according to Friday's filing.

Buffett, 88, still oversees the bulk of Berkshire's common stock investments including Apple Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, and with Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 95, handles major capital allocation decisions.

The filing said Buffett's total compensation in 2018 was $388,968, including $288,968 for personal and home security.

Munger, also a billionaire, received a $100,000 salary. Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg was awarded $2.26 million.

Buffett's compensation was about 6.63 times the $58,691 median pay of Berkshire employees, based on a sample of about two-thirds of its roughly 389,000-person workforce.

The filing included no shareholder proposals to be voted on at Berkshire's May 4 annual meeting. Such proposals normally fail by large margins. Buffett still has 31.4 percent of Berkshire's voting power.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chris Reese, Rosalba O'Brienand Diane Craft)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.