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BEIJING, December 13 (TMTPOST)— Legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffett cut stakes in BYD Co, further offloading the top Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer since his company started selldown less than three months ago.
Source: Visual China
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold 1.3295 million Hong Kong-listed BYD shares at an the average price of HK$201.3432 (US$25.9) apiece on December 8 , decreasing the company’s holding of BYD total H shares from 15.07% to 14.95%, according to a filing with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) Tuesday.
This is Berkshire’s sixth cut in stakes made public in less than three months, suggesting it has cashed out a total of more than HK$3 billion through the sales in the period. In late August, The investment company disclosed sales of 1.33 million BYD shares, its first stake reduction since acquiring BYD in September, 2008. It soon trimmed more than 1.7 million shares till early September, and unveiled in November three deals, reducing about 12.30 million stakes in BYD.
Following the sales last week, Berkshire sold more than 13 million BYD shares in total, unwinding more than a quarter of its holdings in BYD since August. BYD shares listed in Hong Kong closed around 1.5% lower Tuesday, wiping out about 23% of its market value since the end of August.
BYD has posted robust growth despite Buffett’s unwinding. It broke its record in both the top line and bottom line in the quarter ended September, according to financial results released in late October. The automaker generated revenue of RMB117.08 billion, increasing 115.59% from a year ago, and the net income of RMB5.716 billion represents a 350% year-over-year (YoY) increase.
In the beginning of this month, BYD said it sold 230,427 vehicles in November, breaking the monthly sales record for the ninth consecutive month and maintaining triple-digit growth for the year. With sales topped 200,000 units three months in a row, BYD met its annual target of 1.5 million vehicles this year a month earlier.
BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li played down Berkshire’s sales last week. According to Li, its “very natural” for Buffett to get some returns. The executive didn’t treat the offloading as any indication that the investor’s abandoning BYD. Instead, Buffett “loves” the company and its management since he will always be its biggest supporter, Li said.
