Berkshire reality: Buffett won't be there forever

By Jonathan Stempel and Lilla Zuill

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - No issue received more attention at Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder meeting than who would replace Warren Buffett when he dies or decides to stop running the company.

"I can't help but think it will affect me," said Vicki Roberts, 49, a shareholder and Dallas-based health insurance saleswoman. "Berkshire is a really special corporation. When the first generation passes, it means change."

Speaking to a record 35,000 shareholders Buffett said he still has three internal candidates to succeed him as chief executive, including one whom the board would install immediately if needed, and four candidates inside and outside the company to follow him as chief investment officer.

Buffett has given no hint of when he would quit, but given his age, 78, the issue remains.

Shareholders expressed confidence that Buffett has the succession issue well in hand. Yet, some admit that Buffett is a reason they bought the stock in the first place, and that when he leaves, they might too.

"That will be a time of real terror for a lot of people, and I don't know what I'll do," said Clifford Glassel, 68, a retired product engineer from Red Oak, Iowa who was attending his sixth meeting.

When Fitch Ratings took away Berkshire's "triple-A" credit rating in March, it warned of the "key man" risk that Berkshire faces, with its track record and ability to find companies to buy so closely tied to the world's second-richest person.

"He's very important to the company," said Geoff Stark, 62, a dentist from Roseburg, Oregon attending his first meeting, along with his son, Brentley. "He is the company."