Bill Ackman sees Berkshire eventually paying dividend, increasing buybacks post-Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway could increase its cash returns to shareholders once Warren Buffett's term as chief executive officer comes to an end, according to Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman. "I think they're going to start to returning capital," Ackman said Monday on CNBC's " Squawk Box. " The methods for returning capital could include a potential dividend and "being a little bit more aggressive in buying back stock," Ackman said. Under Buffett, Berkshire never paid a dividend and has not repurchased its own stock since the second quarter of 2024. The Berkshire board voted unanimously on Sunday to make Greg Abel the new president and CEO at year-end , following Buffett's recommendation. Abel will take over a company with a market value above $1 trillion and a cash pile of more than $347 billion. Even with that enormous amount of capital, Ackman said he expects Abel and the rest of Berkshire management to be "a little bit more careful" on the first major deals post-Buffett. Ackman is a long-time admirer of Buffett and on Monday called him "one of my most important heroes, certainly in business and I would say in life." The comments came the same day that Pershing Square announced struck a deal to raise its investment in real estate company Howard Hughes , with plans to turn it into a Berkshire-style conglomerate and investment vehicle. The billionaire hedge fund manager said he has confidence in Abel to be a good steward of Berkshire, though the new CEO has big shoes to fill when it comes to picking stocks and companies to buy. "Greg Abel is known to be a superb operator, and a very good allocator of capital certainly in the business that he's managed. I think it's yet to be proven that the current management team has the capability that Buffett has had to buy businesses, and it's more challenging now because of the scale," Ackman said. All that said, however, "I wouldn't bet against Berkshire," Ackman added.
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3 hours ago
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How I became 'king of billboards' and sold my business for £1bn
When serial entrepreneur Damian Cox shunned university for skiing in the late 1990s and returned to London some six years later looking for a job, it was for anything other than being an estate agent. Cox had previously attended the now-closed Douai School in Berkshire, run by Benedictine monks, and says that around three quarters of his year went on to run their own businesses. 'There must be a direct correlation between the fact that we learned nothing, other than how to look after ourselves and maybe how to create something out of nothing,' says the founder and CEO of Wildstone, one of the world's biggest billboard companies valued today at £2bn. 'As a result, I think we all became quite entrepreneurial.' Read More: The boss who has found 'nature's answer to plastic' Growing up alongside a single mother and three sisters, Cox asked a recruitment friend for any upcoming vacancies and started as a development executive for a start-up called Blow Up Media, which signed up sites and put adverts on scaffolding. As its first UK employee, Cox witnessed scale firsthand as the firm reached a multi-million pound turnover in a few years. He also believed he was the 'worst paid person in the company'. This after negotiating its first sale of £80,000 per month. Following a meeting with the CEO and no pay rise forthcoming, he left the firm. Cox co-founded a competing venture the next day, having already built a network of landlord contacts. He admits now to lacking business know-how, cash flow experience and, crucially, that being paid on the same day didn't exist. 'There was this sort of Gordon Brown-esque extended payment term of 30, 60, 100 days. So you had to pay your landlords on Monday and you didn't get your money for 100 days. And that was a very, very big lesson in business.' Over a year later, a business magazine profiled Cox and his business, EK Straas, which was seen by leading outdoor advertising companies JCDecaux ( and Clear Channel (CCO), the latter offering an undisclosed 'life-changing amount of money' despite yet being profitable. Cox, 50, worked as a senior executive for Clear Channel for about a year but soon shunned the corporate world after witnessing what he says was a lack of ambition, innovation or growth. Instead, he challenged the consolidated outdoor billboard market with his next agency venture in 2004. Ocean Outdoor aimed to find the best assets and attract a greater revenue profile. Read More: Meet the company that finds 'must-haves' to make everyday life easier He negotiated a deal with a central London landlord on one of the highest profile banner sites by Tottenham Court Road station before erecting the first digital panel in Liverpool. 'The business snowballed from there,' says Cox. In 2010, he was effectively sacked from his start-up after bringing a chairman on board he failed to bond with and the market having suffered from the 2008 financial crisis. 'I was trying to be all things to all people without acknowledging what I'm really good and bad at. So maybe they made the right decision,' recalls Cox. 'But the market did return quickly and that was a pretty brutal learning for me. I'm very thankful today that it did happen because I wouldn't have Wildstone without that period of negativity.' Wildstone, his third venture he co-founded with Patrick Fisher in 2010, set out as a consultancy business as it first extracted revenue from landlords and took commission before becoming the world's largest media infrastructure company. 'We became successful very quickly, however you sometimes underestimate your own ambition. I didn't have the ambition to take over the world, but soon it became apparent that actually that's what I wanted to do again. 'I'm fortunate enough to suffer from ADHD which allows me to compartmentalise things easily. My mother was also a huge guiding force for me in lots of ways because I watched someone bring up four kids with nothing. I can't sit at home doing nothing. I love putting a creative vision in place and seeing if it's achievable.' Wildstone has acquired, upgraded and digitised super-sized billboard posts into architecturally-led designs. The Hammersmith-based firm, which employs 130 staff globally, was sold to private equity in September 2022 for around £1bn, with Wildstone now boasting around 5,500 billboards across the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as Australia. 'People often see the other side, that you've made some money and it must be easy for you,' admits Cox, who lives in the Cotswolds and is an avid collector of emerging artists. 'But they don't see the 10 years of not sleeping or the anxiety that goes with it. Having a business bank account with £50,000 in it and you've got a wage bill on Friday of £400,000; those kinds of elements get lost in history and it's really difficult. 'I wouldn't underestimate that to anyone starting a company. You're navigating politics, revenue, cash flow, a market you can't control. And all of that has to come together in a way that allows you to move forward and survive.' Read More: The life lesson behind 335-year-old funeral business When the business was sold 12 years after being founded, Wildstone's leadership ensured a 'lump sum cash' for every employee and further qualification for remaining at the company. Staff turnover remains small. Cox remained as global CEO after the sale, following several months of feeling 'deeply unhappy and depressed' after spending years scaling companies. Reinvigorated, he says that billboards today are 'still at the front of everything' when it comes to contextual advertising. 'It's the last broadcast medium that you can't swipe,' says Cox, who aims to grow Wildstone globally to the tune of a £15bn valuation. 'If it's on the side of a road you're driving down, you're going to see it. That for me makes it very attractive and we are becoming more and more valuable.' Helping a competitive market grow You do get slightly aggravated by the level of red tape, tax and constant desire by governmental bodies to take off you, which makes business harder as time goes on. In our industry, business rates are a prime example. Local authorities hate advertising, but they're happy to slap a 40-45p in the pound business levy on every advertising asset for doing nothing. Cash flow means you're very rarely positive for at least a couple of years on building one advertising panel. The benefit we have is that I am able to say that we own that infrastructure and I'll give you 100 billboards that are now digitised. I'll let you pay in arrears for the first quarter so you've got time to build up that cash flow to be able to pay. So actually our business makes the market wholly more competitive than it ever has been before. And it means that the stranglehold some of the bigger players have isn't necessarily as tight as they'd like it to be. We're able to push some of the smaller players up into the market. This is great because, after all, it's hard building a business. Read more: Meet the 'jokers from London' who sold 100,000 blocks of butter in first 10 weeks 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my Rollr deodorant off the ground'Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
How I became 'king of billboards' and sold my business for £1bn
When serial entrepreneur Damian Cox shunned university for skiing in the late 1990s and returned to London some six years later looking for a job, it was for anything other than being an estate agent. Cox had previously attended the now-closed Douai School in Berkshire, run by Benedictine monks, and says that around three quarters of his year went on to run their own businesses. 'There must be a direct correlation between the fact that we learned nothing, other than how to look after ourselves and maybe how to create something out of nothing,' says the founder and CEO of Wildstone, one of the world's biggest billboard companies valued today at £2bn. 'As a result, I think we all became quite entrepreneurial.' Read More: The boss who has found 'nature's answer to plastic' Growing up alongside a single mother and three sisters, Cox asked a recruitment friend for any upcoming vacancies and started as a development executive for a start-up called Blow Up Media, which signed up sites and put adverts on scaffolding. As its first UK employee, Cox witnessed scale firsthand as the firm reached a multi-million pound turnover in a few years. He also believed he was the 'worst paid person in the company'. This after negotiating its first sale of £80,000 per month. Following a meeting with the CEO and no pay rise forthcoming, he left the firm. Cox co-founded a competing venture the next day, having already built a network of landlord contacts. He admits now to lacking business know-how, cash flow experience and, crucially, that being paid on the same day didn't exist. 'There was this sort of Gordon Brown-esque extended payment term of 30, 60, 100 days. So you had to pay your landlords on Monday and you didn't get your money for 100 days. And that was a very, very big lesson in business.' Over a year later, a business magazine profiled Cox and his business, EK Straas, which was seen by leading outdoor advertising companies JCDecaux ( and Clear Channel (CCO), the latter offering an undisclosed 'life-changing amount of money' despite yet being profitable. Cox, 50, worked as a senior executive for Clear Channel for about a year but soon shunned the corporate world after witnessing what he says was a lack of ambition, innovation or growth. Instead, he challenged the consolidated outdoor billboard market with his next agency venture in 2004. Ocean Outdoor aimed to find the best assets and attract a greater revenue profile. Read More: Meet the company that finds 'must-haves' to make everyday life easier He negotiated a deal with a central London landlord on one of the highest profile banner sites by Tottenham Court Road station before erecting the first digital panel in Liverpool. 'The business snowballed from there,' says Cox. In 2010, he was effectively sacked from his start-up after bringing a chairman on board he failed to bond with and the market having suffered from the 2008 financial crisis. 'I was trying to be all things to all people without acknowledging what I'm really good and bad at. So maybe they made the right decision,' recalls Cox. 'But the market did return quickly and that was a pretty brutal learning for me. I'm very thankful today that it did happen because I wouldn't have Wildstone without that period of negativity.' Wildstone, his third venture he co-founded with Patrick Fisher in 2010, set out as a consultancy business as it first extracted revenue from landlords and took commission before becoming the world's largest media infrastructure company. 'We became successful very quickly, however you sometimes underestimate your own ambition. I didn't have the ambition to take over the world, but soon it became apparent that actually that's what I wanted to do again. 'I'm fortunate enough to suffer from ADHD which allows me to compartmentalise things easily. My mother was also a huge guiding force for me in lots of ways because I watched someone bring up four kids with nothing. I can't sit at home doing nothing. I love putting a creative vision in place and seeing if it's achievable.' Wildstone has acquired, upgraded and digitised super-sized billboard posts into architecturally-led designs. The Hammersmith-based firm, which employs 130 staff globally, was sold to private equity in September 2022 for around £1bn, with Wildstone now boasting around 5,500 billboards across the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as Australia. 'People often see the other side, that you've made some money and it must be easy for you,' admits Cox, who lives in the Cotswolds and is an avid collector of emerging artists. 'But they don't see the 10 years of not sleeping or the anxiety that goes with it. Having a business bank account with £50,000 in it and you've got a wage bill on Friday of £400,000; those kinds of elements get lost in history and it's really difficult. 'I wouldn't underestimate that to anyone starting a company. You're navigating politics, revenue, cash flow, a market you can't control. And all of that has to come together in a way that allows you to move forward and survive.' Read More: The life lesson behind 335-year-old funeral business When the business was sold 12 years after being founded, Wildstone's leadership ensured a 'lump sum cash' for every employee and further qualification for remaining at the company. Staff turnover remains small. Cox remained as global CEO after the sale, following several months of feeling 'deeply unhappy and depressed' after spending years scaling companies. Reinvigorated, he says that billboards today are 'still at the front of everything' when it comes to contextual advertising. 'It's the last broadcast medium that you can't swipe,' says Cox, who aims to grow Wildstone globally to the tune of a £15bn valuation. 'If it's on the side of a road you're driving down, you're going to see it. That for me makes it very attractive and we are becoming more and more valuable.' Helping a competitive market grow You do get slightly aggravated by the level of red tape, tax and constant desire by governmental bodies to take off you, which makes business harder as time goes on. In our industry, business rates are a prime example. Local authorities hate advertising, but they're happy to slap a 40-45p in the pound business levy on every advertising asset for doing nothing. Cash flow means you're very rarely positive for at least a couple of years on building one advertising panel. The benefit we have is that I am able to say that we own that infrastructure and I'll give you 100 billboards that are now digitised. I'll let you pay in arrears for the first quarter so you've got time to build up that cash flow to be able to pay. So actually our business makes the market wholly more competitive than it ever has been before. And it means that the stranglehold some of the bigger players have isn't necessarily as tight as they'd like it to be. We're able to push some of the smaller players up into the market. This is great because, after all, it's hard building a business. Read more: Meet the 'jokers from London' who sold 100,000 blocks of butter in first 10 weeks 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my Rollr deodorant off the ground'Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Impressive five-bedroom Edwardian home in Cheam listed for £1.25million
An impressive five-bedroom Edwardian semi-detached home located in Cheam's Landseer Conservation Area has been listed for offers over £1.25 million. The property, situated on Derby Road in Sutton, is described as a 'character residence' by estate agents Watson Homes, and offers over 2,000 sq ft of space. The period property, which dates back to the Edwardian era, is said to have a range of original features. These include a cast iron fireplace, stained leaded light windows, and a feature staircase. Original features include cast iron fireplace, stained glass, and staircase (Image: Watson Homes - Cheam Village) The home has two reception rooms, one of which is an extended dining room that leads into a conservatory. The kitchen is fitted with wooden wall units, a movable island, and an American-style fridge/freezer, alongside integrated "AEG" oven/grill and "Bosch" dishwasher. Spacious kitchen with island and conservatory opens to 90ft garden (Image: Watson Homes - Cheam Village) The house also has a utility area and a downstairs shower room. The five bedrooms are spread across the upper floors, with the fifth being a bright and airy room that offers flexible living space. Flexible fifth bedroom and insulated cabin ideal for home working (Image: Watson Homes - Cheam Village) The property's bathroom is fitted with a luxury suite, including a freestanding bath tub with chrome mixer tap and shower attachment. Bathroom features luxury suite with freestanding bath and chrome fixtures (Image: Watson Homes - Cheam Village) The house has off-street parking, an electric vehicle charger point, and a pretty topiary hedge and decorative footpath. The rear garden, which is approximately 90ft long, is described as a 'lovely' space with a decorative patio area, sandstone paved footpath, well stocked flowerbeds, fruit trees, and an abundance of plants. The garden also features a detached cabin with an insulated ceiling and floor, power supply, and double glazed windows. Rear garden boasts cabin, fruit trees, and sandstone patio retreat (Image: Watson Homes - Cheam Village) The property is within walking distance of Cheam train station and West Sutton, providing good transport links into Victoria, London Bridge, Wimbledon, and St Pancras. The area is also well-served by bus routes, making it a convenient location for school children and commuters. Cheam Village, with its quaint coffee shops, is also nearby, while Sutton offers larger department stores, banking, and eateries. The area is noted for its high standard of local schools, including Homefield, St Dunstan's, Sutton High, Sutton Grammar, Nonsuch, and The Avenue. The home is listed as a freehold property with an EPC Rating of D. Anyone interested in viewing the property can contact Watson Homes.
