The world’s most successful investor, Warren Buffett, wants to buy a South African company, or at least a sizeable chunk of one, Moneyweb reported on Monday.
Responding to a question posed by Moneyweb at a media conference in Omaha in the United States on Sunday, Buffett said: ”We understand South African businesses in the same way that we understand businesses in other parts of the world. We would love to invest.”
Buffett said that on Saturday evening, during the traditional ”meet and greet” gathering of foreign shareholders after the Berkshire Hathaway AGM, he went out of his way to try to initiate some South African interest.
”I told at least 30 of the South Africans I met at the function that we have an 800 number — they can call me, collect if necessary, if they find us an investment opportunity.
”We even discussed one [potential acquisition] that might make a lot of sense. They might be long shots right now, but we would love to invest in South Africa,” said Buffet.
”We put a lot of hooks in the water. They could bring in a big fish, preferably a whale.”
The only thing he said that counted against a South African investment by Berkshire was size.
Buffett said given the scale of the group today -‒ worth over $140-billion — an investment would need to be around $2-billion (R14-billion) to make any sense. – Sapa