Ajit Jain has been a feature at Warren Buffett’s side since he left McKinsey & Co. to join Berkshire Hathaway in 1986, helping to grow the conglomerate’s suite of insurance businesses into a global powerhouse over the years. But now Berkshire’s 73-year-old vice chairman of non-insurance operations is selling stock.
Jain sold 200 Berkshire Class A shares on Monday for roughly $139 million, representing roughly 55% of his total stake in the conglomerate. He now holds just 61 Berkshire shares personally, as well as 55 shares in a family trust, and 50 in a nonprofit corporation called the Jain Foundation. Buffett has famously never split Berkshire’s Class A stock, which discourages short-sellers and high-frequency traders, and is meant to encourage long-term value investors. Jain sold his shares at an average price of $695,417.65 per share. At that price, the value of his remaining stake is about $115.4 million.
