Buffett's Berkshire discloses big Taiwan Semi stake (updated)

Louisiana-Pacific

14/11/2022 22:48

(Adds details of investments, background, byline)
    By Jonathan Stempel
       Nov 14 (Reuters) - 
    Berkshire Hathaway Inc  BRKa.N  said it bought more than
$4.1 billion of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
 2330.TW   TSM.N , a rare significant foray into the technology
sector by billionaire Warren Buffett's conglomerate.
    In a Monday regulatory filing describing its U.S.-listed
equity investments as of Sept. 30, Berkshire said it owned about
60.1 million American depositary shares of the world's largest
contract chipmaker.
    Berkshire also disclosed new stakes of $297 million in
building materials company Louisiana-Pacific Corp  LPX.N  and
$13 million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc  JEF.N . It exited
an investment in Store Capital Corp  STOR.N , a real estate
company that agreed in September to be taken private.
        The filing did not specify whether Buffett or his
portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler made specific
purchases and sales. Investors often try to piggy back on what
Berkshire buys. Larger investments are normally Buffett's.
  
        While Berkshire does not normally make big technology
bets, it often prefers companies it perceives to have
competitive advantages, often through their size.
  
        Taiwan Semi 
    posted an 80% jump
     in third-quarter profit, helped by demand from customers
such as iPhone maker Apple Inc  AAPL.O , by far the largest
investment in Berkshire's $306.2 billion equity portfolio.
  
        "I suspect Berkshire has a belief that the world cannot
do without the products manufactured by Taiwan Semi," said Tom
Russo, a partner at Gardner, Russo & Quinn in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, which owns Berkshire shares.
  
        "Only a small number of companies that can amass the
capital to deliver semiconductors, which are increasingly
central to people's lives," he added.
  
        Berkshire has had mixed success in technology.
  
        Its more than six-year wager during the last decade in
IBM Corp  IBM.N  did not pan out, but Berkshire is sitting on
huge unrealized gains on its $126.5 billion stake in Apple,
which Buffett views more as a consumer products company.
  
        Berkshire disclosed the Taiwan Semi stake about 2-1/2
months after it began 
    reducing
     a decade-old, multi-billion dollar stake in BYD Co
 1211.HK   002594.SZ , China's largest electric car company.
  
        In the third quarter, Berkshire added to its stakes in
Chevron Corp  CVX.N , Occidental Petroleum Corp  OXY.N ,
Celanese Corp  CE.N , Paramount Global  PARA.O  and RH  RH.N .
  
        It also sold shares of Activision Blizzard Inc  ATVI.O ,
Bank of New York Mellon Corp  BK.N , General Motors Co  GM.N ,
Kroger Co  KR.N  and US Bancorp  USB.N .
  
        Buffett, 92, has run Berkshire since 1965. The Omaha,
Nebraska-based company also owns dozens of businesses such as
the BNSF railroad, the Geico auto insurer, several energy and
industrial companies, Fruit of the Loom and Dairy Queen.
  
 (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie
Adler and David Gregorio)
 ((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters
Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))