Berkshire Hathaway sold 2.53 million shares of BYD, a Chinese company.

Berkshire Hathaway, an American multinational conglomerate listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BRK.B, has sold 2.52 million shares of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD on the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 19th. According to a stock exchange filing, the investment company sold the shares for HKUS$ 675.80 million, which is equivalent to $86.3 million.

Berkshire Cuts China’s BYD Shares Holdings

Following the sale of BYD shares, Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings in the Chinese company’s issued H-shares have decreased from 9.21% to 8.98%. Notably, this is not the first time that Berkshire Hathaway has sold part of its shares. In fact, earlier this year, the investment company sold most of its holdings in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), reducing its holdings by 86%. This was a major move, considering it had bought the shares just three months earlier.

Berkshire Hathaway had purchased TSMC shares in November 2022, which caused a surge in the semiconductor manufacturing company’s stock. Shortly after the $5 billion investment, TSMC’s stock fell 4% in Taipei amid broader market losses. Berkshire’s decision to sell TSMC’s stock came as a surprise to the market, including the co-president of Taishin Securities, Tony Huang, who said:

“It’s surprising that Berkshire cut its holdings so much in just a quarter, which differs from its past practice of long-term investment and continuing to add shares.”

Berkshire’s Selloffs

As Huang said, Berkshire Hathaway typically holds on to its acquired shares for the long-term and buys more shares from the same company after the initial acquisition. However, the recent decision concerning TSMC is a deviation from the usual practice. As for BYD, Berkshire Hathaway purchased 225 million shares of the EV maker for $230 million in 2008. Since then, the American company’s investment has boomed. The last time BYD shares peaked in June 2022, Berkshire Hathaway’s investment was worth $9.5 billion.

In February, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported the second biggest of nine publicly disclosed transactions since Berkshire began to trim its BYD stake in August 2022. The SCMP noted that the cutback on the 3rd of February took $2.6 billion off the table within a six-month selling spree. The spree included a $1.33 million BYD shares sell-off reported by blockchain. At the time, the sale was worth $34.43 million, and the company’s holdings dropped from 15.07% to 14.95% on the 8th of December, 2022.