By Michael Elkins
Chinese conglomerate and electric car maker, BYD (HK:1211) is down on the Hong Kong stock exchange Friday following reports that Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) has sold more shares in the company. A filing with the exchange showed Berkshire had sold 1.7 million shares in the company for an average price of 262.72 Hong Kong dollars (US$33.47) each, dropping 207.1 shares.
An earlier filing showed Berkshire had sold 1.3 million shares on Aug. 24. Berkshire had held 225 million BYD shares at the end of last year. BYD's Hong Kong-listed shares slid 7.9% on Wednesday after the first disclosure. The stock declined 14% this week.
“We may see some continued selling from Buffett,” a fund manager at EFG Asset Management HK Ltd, said. “In the short term, it will be hard for investor sentiment surrounding BYD’s Hong Kong shares to recover, while its shares listed onshore may be less affected. In the long term, the share performance will still depend on company fundamentals and product cycles.”
A BYD official, in comments earlier this week to Chinese newspaper the 21st Century Business Herald, said there’s “no need to over interpret” the stake sale, and added the company’s operation remains normal.
Also on Friday, BYD said it sold 174,915 vehicles in August, more than double the 68,531 it sold a year earlier. The automaker has sold 983,844 vehicles so far this year, more than double the 372,630 sold in the same period last year.