the times | Monday May 2 2022 31
Business
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondent, Omaha
Warren Buffett has amassed a
$5.6 billion stake in Activision Blizzard
after his investment empire embarked
upon its largest stock market spending
spree in more than a decade.
The veteran stockpicker revealed his
wager on Microsoft’s $69 billion
takeover of the video games group as
thousands descended upon Omaha,
Nebraska, for his first in-person annual
meeting in three years.
Microsoft’s agreed merger with
Activision could be one of the biggest in
US history, but some question the
$95-per-share deal’s prospects in the
face of tough regulatory scrutiny.
Shares in the developer behind titles
such as Call of Duty closed at $75.60 on
Friday. Buffett said Berkshire Hath-
away owns 9.5 per cent of Activision, up
from 1.9 per cent at the end of last year,
and will formally disclose the stake if it
rises above 10 per cent.
The conglomerate’s 91-year-old
chairman and chief executive, known
as the Sage of Omaha for generating
market-beating returns for his share-
holders, stressed that he was personally
responsible for the significant increase
in its Activision holding.
“It is my purchases, not the manager
who [initially] bought it some months
ago,” Buffett said. “If the deal goes
through, we make some money, and if
the deal doesn’t go through, who knows
what happens.”
Berkshire, run by Buffett since 1965,
is a sprawling conglomerate which
owns businesses ranging from Geico,an insurer, and Dairy Queen, the chain
of ice-cream parlours, to the BNSF
railroad and Fruit of the Loom, the
clothing company.
It also owns an investment portfolio
worth about $391 billion, two-thirds of
which is concentrated in vast interests
in American Express, Apple, Bank of
America and Chevron. At the end of
March, its stake in Apple alone stood at
$159.1 billion.
Bobby Kotick and Tim Cook, chief
executives of Activision and Apple
respectively, were among the crowds at
Berkshire’s annual meeting on Satur-
day. Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan
Chase chairman, attended for the first
time. Others at the meeting included
Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of
Microsoft and Buffett’s close friend,
and Bill Murray, the actor. Berkshire¤commoditiescommodities currenciescurrencies
$
1.350
1.300
1.250
1.200$£/$
1.2568 (+0.0124)
140
120
100
80Dow Jones
32,977.21 (-939.18)
38,000
36,000
34,000
32,0001.225
1.200
1.175
1.150£/€
€1.1917 (+0.0070) ¤Gold
$1,909.07 (+23.13) $
2,200
2,000
1,800
1,600FTSE 100
7,544.55 (+35.36)
8,000
7,500
7,000
6,500world markets (Friday’s close, change on the week)
Brent crude (6pm)
$109.65 (+2.40)Mar 29 Apr 6 14 26 Mar 30 Apr 7 16 26 Mar 30 Apr 6 14 26 Mar 30 Apr 7 16 26 Mar 26 Apr 6 14 26 Mar 26 Apr 6 14 26spent $51 billion on shares in the first
quarter, according to a filing released
this weekend, and sold stock worth
$9.7 billion during the same period. Its
net purchases have not been so high
since 2008, according to Bloomberg.
The conglomerate’s cash pile, which
finished 2021 at $146.7 billion, fell to
$106.3 billion. While Buffett suggested
in his annual letter in February that
there was “little that excites us” in terms
of acquisitions, the following month
Berkshire announced its largest
takeover in six years, an $11.6 billion
deal for Alleghany, to strengthen its in-
surance division. It also bought signifi-
cant stakes in Occidental Petroleum,
the US oil producer, and HP, the per-
sonal computing and printing group.
Buffett, who reassured shareholders
Continued on page 33, col 3Berkshire Hathaway takes 9.5% of video games developer
Buffett raises Activision
stake in spending flurry
Warren Buffett rides on a golf cart at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual investor meeting. He has taken a $5.6 billion stake in the company behind Crash Bandicoot, inset
SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERSWe need to
talk about
HSBC split,
says Ping An
Ben Martin Banking EditorThe Chinese insurer that is pushing for
a break up of HSBC has called for an
investor debate about the future of
Britain’s largest bank.
It emerged last week that Ping An, an
insurance company based in Shenzhen
that is HSBC’s biggest shareholder, had
been privately urging the bosses of the
FTSE 100 lender to split its Asian oper-
ations from the rest of its businesses.
It is a setback for Noel Quinn, the
HSBC chief executive, and Mark Tuck-
er, the chairman, who are trying to steer
the lender through the strained rela-
tionship between the West and China.
Ping An signalled at the weekend that it
was seeking broader shareholder
support for its proposal.
A spokesman for the insurer, which
has a 9.2 per cent stake in HSBC, said:
“We want a debate about the future of
the bank. We want shareholders to
participate in the debate and to propose
solutions for HSBC. Ping An supports
all reforms and proposals from inves-
tors that can help HSBC’s operations
and long-term growth.”
The comments are significant
because they are Ping An’s first in public
about its plans for HSBC. They were
first reported in full by The Sunday
Times, which also said that Ping An was
keen for other HSBC investors to take
the lead in calling a shareholder meet-
ing to hold a vote on a break-up.
Splitting HSBC in two would be piv-
otal for the lender, which holds total as-
sets of about £2.3 trillion. It was founded
in Hong Kong in 1865 and has long po-
sitioned itself in the middle of trade and
money flows between East and West.
The bank operates in 64 countries,
though Hong Kong remains by far
HSBC’s biggest market and Quinn is
shifting the group’s centre of gravity
even further towards Asia.
Ping An believes that geopolitical
tensions between the UK and US on
the one hand and China on the other,
which have been stoked by Beijing’s
decision in 2020 to impose a draconian
security law on Hong Kong, are drag-
ging on HSBC’s valuation.
It reckons the bank’s lucrative Asian
businesses would attract a higher stock
market rating if they were spun off into
a separately listed company in Hong
Kong.
HSBC bosses are resistant to a break
up. Last week Ewen Stevenson, HSBC’s
finance chief, said that they did not
think it made “any sense at all”.
An HSBC spokesman said: “We be-
lieve we’ve got the right strategy and
are focused on executing it.”
HSBC shares closed up 1.5 per cent at
501¼p on Friday.