Buffett praises BYD and TSMC after selling shares of both firms

WARREN Buffett called electric-car maker BYD “extraordinary” and said chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) is a “fabulous enterprise”. That hasn’t stopped him from selling shares of both firms.

“We’ll find things to do with the money that I’ll feel better about,” the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive officer said of BYD in an interview with CNBC in Tokyo on Wednesday (Apr 12). He said Berkshire wasn’t in a hurry to reduce that stake after recently trimming its holdings of BYD H shares to 10.9 per cent from 11.13 per cent, according to a filing this week.

The billionaire investor took credit for Berkshire’s investment in TSMC amid speculation that one of his investing deputies picked the stock. He said the decision to reduce its stake in the business by 86 per cent in the fourth quarter — which could have fetched US$3.7 billion assuming the shares were sold at the average price over the period — resulted from concerns over geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan, conditions he described as being outside of the company’s control.

“I re-evaluated that part of it,” Buffett said. “I didn’t re-evaluate the business, the management, or anything of the sort.” BLOOMBERG