Berkshire Hathaway has bought a 5% stake in each of Japan’s five biggest trading houses, together worth over $6-billion, marking a departure for chairman Warren Buffett as he looks beyond the United States to diversify his conglomerate.
The long-term investment in Itochu Corp, Marubeni Corp, Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsui & Co Ltd and Sumitomo Corp could see the stakes rise to 9.9%, Berkshire said on Sunday, Buffett’s 90th birthday.
"The five major trading companies have many joint ventures throughout the world and are likely to have more," Buffett said in a statement. "I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit."
The investment will help reduce Berkshire’s dependence on the US economy, which in the last quarter contracted the most in at least 73 years as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.