Warren Buffett ups his holdings of Japanese trading houses to about 9%

Tokyo: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has raised its stake in Japan's top five trading firms to around 9%, it said in its annual report.

Berkshire Hathaway's wholly owned subsidiary National Indemnity Company previously held about 7 to 8 per cent in Mitsubishi Corp, Itochu Corp, Mitsui Co, Sumitomo Corp and Marubeni Corp, according to filings made in June.

Berkshire first announced its stakes in the trading houses in 2020 with the intention of holding them long-term and increasing them to as much as 9.9 per cent.

Bershire Hathaway said in the report, dated Feb. 24, that it paid 1.6 trillion yen ($10.63 billion) for the five stakes, which were valued at 2.9 trillion yen at the end of 2023. In dollar terms, that translated to unrealised gains of 61 per cent or $8 billion, it said.

($1 = 150.5000 yen)