Buffett’s insurance leader Ajit Jain is selling a large portion of Berkshire’s stake

Ajit Jain, the longtime insurance executive at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N, sold more than half of his Class A shares in the conglomerate this week.

According to a regulatory filing late Wednesday, Jain, 73, sold 200 shares of Berkshire Class A on Sept. 9 for about $139.1 million, at an average price of $695,418 per share.

The sale included 104 shares held directly by Jain and 96 held by family trusts. No reason was provided.

Berkshire did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Jain’s sale came five days after Berkshire’s stock price peaked above $727,000 and less than two weeks after its market valuation topped $1 trillion for the first time.

Berkshire slowed its own share buybacks and let cash grow to $277 billion, likely reflecting in part stock valuations.

Cathy Seifert, a CFRA Research analyst who rates Berkshire a “buy,” said Jain’s sale may reflect personal circumstances rather than his view of Berkshire’s prospects.

“Those of us who have followed Berkshire Hathaway for a long time suspected there might be a changing of the guard in the insurance operations,” she said. “My view is that it can go further and I suspect that is behind its share sales.”

Jain still oversees 166 Class A shares, including 61 held directly, 55 held by trusts and 50 held by his nonprofit Jain Foundation.

He also oversees 124,308 Berkshire Class B shares, equal to about 83 Class A shares, held by the foundation.

Born in India, Jain joined Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire in 1986 and led its expansion into reinsurance, with a specialty in pricing large risks such as natural catastrophes.

Buffett credited Jain with adding tens of billions of dollars of shareholder value and once said that if he, Jain and the late Vice Chairman Charlie Munger were in a sinking boat and only one could be saved, “Swim to Ajit”.

Greg Abel, 62, Berkshire’s other vice chairman, is expected to eventually succeed Buffett, 94, as chief executive.

He owns about $150 million in Berkshire Class A shares, compared to $78 million held by Jain directly or in trusts. Shares closed up 0.7% at $675,380 on Thursday.

“We continue to be confident that the interests of Mr. Jain and Mr. Abel are aligned with shareholders,” Edward Jones analyst James Shanahan said in an email.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita Choy)

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Leadership in mergers and acquisitions