Berkshire Hathaway said on Aug. 31 it had acquired passive stakes of slightly more than 5% in each of Japan’s top five trading houses. The shareholdings were worth a total of 700 billion yen, or about $6.6 billion, based on Friday’s closing prices.
The stakes in Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo were acquired over a period of approximately twelve months through regular purchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Warren Buffett’s company said in a statement. The U.S. company said it intends to hold the investments for the long term and, depending on price, may increase its holdings up to a maximum of 9.9% each and no further without the approval of the board of the individual companies.
"The five major trading companies have many joint ventures throughout the world and are likely to have more," Buffett said in a statement."I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit." Marubeni and Sumitomo ended trading on Aug. 31 up over 9%, followed by Mitsubishi and Mitsui at over 7%. Itochu rose 4.2% to a record high.
petesweeneypro Jim Rogers, who says Japanese economy will definitely collapse in 20 years, resumed buying Japanese firms' stocks this May.
Reuters petesweeneypro Money is an illusion.
petesweeneypro Misery loves company
petesweeneypro Wow talk about analog behemoths in the age of digital revolution — RIP