Buffett Again Reduces Stake in BYD, with Shareholding Ratio Dropping to 10.9%
On April 11, a filling from Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed that Berkshire Hathaway, an investment company owned by Warren Buffett, sold 2.4805 million shares of BYD on March 31 at an average price of HK$217.67 ($27.73) per share for a total of approximately HK$540 million ($68.8 million). Its stake in the company decreased from 11.13% to 10.90%.
On September 29, 2008, Berkshire Hathaway invested HK$1.8 billion to subscribe for 225 million BYD H-shares at a price of HK$8 per share. Since then, Warren Buffett has been heavily invested in BYD and even attended events such as new car launches to support the company.
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On August 24, 2022, Buffett reduced his holdings in BYD for the first time after holding it for fourteen years. Berkshire Hathaway then continued to reduce its holdings in BYD, and this is already the tenth reduction disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As per the regulations of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, listed companies are required to report any increase or decrease in major shareholders’ holdings only when it crosses specific integer percentage points. However, Berkshire Hathaway has had many other reductions beyond those disclosed.
In December last year, Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, said that despite Berkshire Hathaway selling more than one-fifth of its stake in the company, its founder Warren Buffet still has great confidence in BYD’s future and will not give up on it.
On the evening of March 28, BYD released its 2022 annual report, which showed that its operating income in 2022 was 424.061 billion yuan ($61.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 96.2%. Its net profit was 16.622 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 445.86%.
BYD sold 207,080 new energy vehicles last month, bringing their total sales for the year to 552,076 units and representing a year-on-year growth of 92.81%. Among them, the Dynasty series under BYD sold 147443 units, the Ocean series sold 48248 units, and the Denza brand sold 10398 units.
In March 2023, BYD sold a total of 13,312 new energy passenger vehicles overseas. Its total installed capacity of new energy vehicle power batteries and energy storage batteries in March was approximately 9.891 GWh, and the cumulative installed capacity for 2023 is expected to be approximately 26.991 GWh.
