New Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel makes first deal since taking over from Warren Buffett

OMAHA, Neb. -- Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO Greg Abel hinted that he may depart from Warren Buffett's longtime hands-off operating model at the conglomerate as he announced a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison.

Abel suggested in the deal announcement he plans to consolidate Taylor Morrison with Berkshire's exisiting site-built homebuilding operations that are part of its Clayton Homes subsidiary. For six decades under Buffett, Berkshire promised to largely leave companies alone after it acquired them and allow the executives to keep running the day-to-day operations the same way.

“We are excited to welcome Taylor Morrison into Berkshire’s portfolio, reflecting our long-standing commitment to housing, exemplified by Clayton Homes and our other building products businesses. Over time, we expect to unify our site-built homebuilding operations into a combined platform enabling us to deliver the dream of homeownership to more Americans," Abel said in the announcement.

In addition to Clayton, which specializes in manufactured homes but also has a site-built unit, Berkshire also owns several other housing related businesses including Benjamin Moore paint and Shaw Floors.

It's not clear how much consolidating Abel might do among Berkshire's dozens of companies that include an assortment of major insurers, including Geico, major manufacturers such as Precision Castparts and a bunch of retail and service companies like NetJets, Dairy Queen and Helzberg Diamonds. But Abel is known as a much more active manager than Buffett ever was.

“Given Greg’s strength as an operator it will be interesting to see if he does consolidate these units to get some greater scale and efficiencies,” said CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert.

Abel has been overseeing all of Berkshire's non-insurance businesses since 2018, and he hasn't made any major changes in operations though he has encouraged subsidiares to cooperate more when it makes sense. Abel became CEO in January, but Buffett remains chairman and Berkshire's largest shareholder.

Berkshire shareholders will likely be excited just to see Abel making deals given that the Omaha-based compay is currently sitting on nearly $400 billion cash. This deal by itself isn't likely to make a meaningful impact on Berkshire's bottom line because the conglomerate is so big, but dealmaking and investing are the areas of Abel's resume that investors had the most questions about.

Buffett praised Abel in an interview with CNBC on Monday morning.

“Greg did that faster than I could have done it, smoother than I could have done it, and I never talked to the CEO. He has launched,” Buffett told CNBC.

Abel has led acquisitions before while leading Berkshire's massive utility division, but obviously Buffett would have signed off on those. Now Abel is making the decisions with advice from Buffett and the rest of the board.

“I think investors will cheer Greg’s foray into M&A as CEO. The purchase price seems rich given the current interest rate/macro environment,” Seifert said.

Berkshire agreed to pay Taylor Morrison investors $72.50 per share in the all-cash deal. That represents a 24% premium over the company's previous closing price of $58.50. Shares of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based homebuilder jumped up near that purchase price on Monday while Berkshire's shares slipped 1%.

But Raymond James analyst Buck Horne said in a research note that it's possible Berkshire could face some competition from private equity firms or other potential buyers who might be willing to pay more for Taylor Morrison before its shareholders can vote on whether to accept this offer.

“We would not be shocked if other players and/or private equity began to sharpen their pencils before the ink on this agreement is fully dry,” Horne said.