Buffett's Berkshire hikes stakes in five Japanese trading houses to almost 10% each

cnbc.com:

Warren Buffett's love for Japanese stocks grows fonder even as he increasingly sells U.S. equities.

The 94-year-old investor's Berkshire Hathaway holding company raised its holdings in five Japanese trading houses —  Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo — by more than 1 percentage point each, to stakes ranging from 8.5% to 9.8%, according to a regulatory filing.

The «Oracle of Omaha» said in his 2024 annual letter that Berkshire is committed to its Japanese investments for the long term and has reached an agreement with the companies to go beyond an initial 10% ceiling.

All five are the biggest «sogo shosha,» or trading houses, in Japan that invest across diverse sectors domestically and abroad — «in a manner somewhat similar to Berkshire itself,» Buffett said. Berkshire first bought into the companies in the summer of 2019. 

Part of the investment strategy involves Buffett hedging currency risk by selling Japanese debt and then pocketing the difference between dividends from the investments and the bond coupon payments he has to make to service the debt.

At the end of 2024, the market value of Berkshire's Japanese holdings came to $23.5 billion, at an aggregate cost of $13.8 billion. The investor praised the companies' managements, relationships with their investors and their capital deployment strategies. 

Buffett first unveiled the Japanese positionsd on his 90th birthday in August 2020 after making regular purchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, saying he was «confounded» by the opportunity and was attracted to the trading houses' dividend growth.

In 2023, Buffett even paid a visit to Japan with his designated successor Greg Abel and met with the heads of the Japanese firms. He said he'd like Berkshire to