Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold over 1 million additional BYD shares last week, continuing a trend of selling off the Chinese electric vehicle and battery maker’s stock that began in August 2022.
According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings in BYD were reduced from 14.95% to 13.97% as a result of the sale of 1,058,000 shares on January 3, which were sold at an average price of HK$191.44, earning the company approximately HK$200 million.
This marks the third time that Berkshire Hathaway has sold BYD shares since September, following the sale of 1.33 million shares on September 1 and December 8, 2022. Berkshire Hathaway first invested in BYD in September 2008, when it spent $230 million to purchase 225 million shares at a price of HK$8 per share.
Since October 2022, Berkshire Hathaway has reduced its stake in BYD a total of five times. In response to this, a BYD source stated in August 2022 that the company was not aware of Berkshire’s decision to sell the shares, but that there was no need to over-interpret the move.
The source added that BYD had no undisclosed major issues and that the company was operating normally. In December 2022, BYD reported a new all-time high in the sale of new energy vehicles (NEVs), with a total of 235,197 units sold.
This brought the company’s cumulative full-year NEV sales for 2022 to 1,863,494 units. In March 2022, BYD discontinued the production and sale of vehicles powered solely by internal combustion engines in favor of a focus on the manufacture of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.
