In Ajit Jain, some see next Buffett

Last summer, as financial markets swooned following an unprecedented downgrade of US debt, Ajit Jain got a chance to walk in Warren Buffett’s shoes.

Jain, who runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s giant reinsurance division, made an unsolicited bid for Transatlantic Holdings Inc. The insurer had already agreed to a merger and was being circled by other potential suitors. But a drop in the value of those cash-and-stock proposals amid the US debt crisis seemingly opened the door for an all-cash offer from Berkshire’s Jain. It was just the sort of opportunistic investing that Buffett is the acknowledged master of.

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