Buffett Hunts Abroad With $6 Billion Wager on Japanese Firms
- Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsui jump after Berkshire discloses stakes
- Buffett says he’s ‘delighted’ to participate in Japan’s future
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Warren Buffett, with more than $146 billion of cash on hand, has been struggling to find attractively priced assets at home in the U.S. Now, he’s looking abroad.
The announcement late Sunday by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. that it bought stakes in five of Japan’s biggest trading companies marks one of his largest-ever forays into Asia’s second-largest economy. The wagers show that Berkshire’s chief executive officer, who turned 90 over the weekend, is willing to expand the company’s horizons in his search for ways to supercharge the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s growth.