Warren Buffett: I know who's taking over as Berkshire Hathaway CEO - but I'm not telling

The favourite to replace Mr Buffett is his long-standing lieutenant Ajit Jain

Warren Buffett, the 84-year-old Sage of Omaha, has identified his successor, but is not telling anyone who it is yet.

In his 50th annual letter to shareholders, some 40,000 of whom turned up to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting this weekend, he said he had “the right person” and added that “gender should never decide who becomes CEO”.

The favourite to replace Mr Buffett is his long-standing lieutenant Ajit Jain, who runs Berkshire’s insurance businesses. But he is 63 and some company watchers point instead to Greg Abel, 52, who heads the energy interests of the business.

The investment guru does not always get it right – in his letter he called his recent $444m loss on Tesco shares a “thumb-sucking” mistake. However one dollar invested in Berkshire Hathaway when he founded it in 1965 would be worth £1.83m today.