Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in a regulatory filing last month that it could offload 325.4 million shares of Kraft Heinz, worth over $7 billion, as the ketchup maker planned to split the business in H2 2026 to streamline operations.
However, the company disclosed in its Q4 earnings release that it will ‘pause work’ on the planned business separation. In response to this reversal, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel also said his company supports Kraft Heinz’s decision to pause work on the business separation.
‘We support CEO Steve Cahillane and the Kraft Heinz Board of Directors’ decision, under Steve’s new leadership, to pause work on the company’s previously planned separation. As a result, management can commit to strengthening Kraft Heinz’s ability to compete and serve customers,’ Abel told a media outlet.
Berkshire is the largest shareholder of Kraft Heinz, a company also popular among dividend investors. The stock has declined by nearly 70% from its 2017 highs.
When Warren Buffett was leading Berkshire, he orchestrated the merger of Kraft and Heinz in 2015. However, the combined entity has found it challenging to keep up with changing consumer tastes and rising competition over the past decade.
When Kraft Heinz announced the business separation plan in September 2025, Buffett had expressed his ‘disappointment’ with the company’s decision to undo the merger he helped facilitate and hinted there is a possibility of selling some or all of the stock. ‘It certainly didn’t turn out to be a brilliant idea to put them together, but I don’t think taking it apart will fix it,’ Buffett had told in an interview with CNBC.
In its Q2 filing, Berkshire Hathaway also disclosed a massive pre-tax write-down of $4.9 billion on the stock. ‘It is reasonably possible there could be adverse consequences on most, if not all, of our operating businesses, as well as on our investments in equity securities, which could significantly affect our future results,’ Berkshire Hathaway had stated.
Did Berkshire’s Stake Sale Warning Compel Kraft Heinz to Halt Business Split?
The latest development and Abel’s commentary raise the possibility that Berkshire could also halt its plans to offload its Kraft Heinz stake as of now. However, market experts are trying to decode whether Berkshire’s announcement to offload 99.9% of its stake in Kraft Heinz pressured the company to make a U-turn on the business separation.
During its Q4 earnings call, CEO Cahillane said that in the time since he joined the company weeks ago, he has ‘seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control,’ which gave him the confidence to halt business split preparations.
Meanwhile, Chris Ballard, managing director of Check Capital, said that ‘selling Kraft is probably the most low-hanging fruit for Greg. We personally wouldn’t be sad to see the holding go,’ adding that it would be difficult for Berkshire to entirely offload all of its Kraft Heinz shares on the public market given the size of its stake.
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