Reuters / Rick Wilking
- Saudi Arabia’s Saudi wealth fund held its position in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in the second quarter of this year, an SEC filing revealed last Friday.
- The Royal Public Investment Fund has released 210,222 shares in Berkshire, giving it about $ 40 million of its previous investment in the famous investor’s business.
- It now owns about $ 39 million worth of Berkshire shares.
- In the same submission it appeared that the fund had its commitment in the likes of Facebook, Boeing and Disney.
- The PIF also said it made new investments of about $ 4.7 billion in funds focused on real estate and the utilities sector.
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The Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is one of the largest in the world, sold 50% of its holdings in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, according to a submission from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The UK’s Public Investment Fund ‘posted a nearly 50% drop in ownership of Berkshire’s shares, with a current hold of 218,778 shares, a 13F entry made on Friday last week.
The PIF revelation revealed that the value of holding Berkshire shares as of June 2020 dropped to about $ 39 million, down from a previous investment of $ 79 million in May.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman also dumped his Berkshire stock, completely away from his 5.5 million stake in the company he acquired about a year ago.
The Saudi Wealth Fund, which was set up by a royal mandate to fund projects and secure government interests in Saudi companies, has previously invested in Tesla, Uber, and Softbank’s Softbank to expand its global portfolio.
This time, the wealth fund chose to focus on exchange-traded funds instead of on individual stocks and invested nearly $ 4.7 billion in U.S. domicile ETFs.
read more: Warren Buffett bets on a gold miner and closes his bank account because he chooses winners, says a veteran Berkshire Hathaway shareholder
New investments of $ 1.86 billion in The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund and $ 2.79 billion in The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund were made – both issued by State Street Global Advisors.
At the same time, the fund sold all its shares in major US companies such as Boeing, Facebook, Marriott International, and Walt Disney.
Positions in individual stakes were also downgraded to US banks Citigroup and Bank of America, and European energy companies Shell, BP, and Total.
PIF had originally thrown billions into these companies in the first quarter, but the impact of the pandemic and consistently negative oil prices meant that many of these stocks traded at historic lows. From the SEC filing, it was unclear what kind of gains or losses PIF made on its trade.
PIF’s stake in Facebook was worth more than $ 520 million, while its Disney stake was valued at about $ 495 million, the SEC filing showed.
Conversely, the fund increased its holdings by approximately 46% in cruise operator Carnival and by 37% in event promoter Live Nation Entertainment.
Read more: Bruce Fraser outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 286% as a hedge fund manager before moving to investing in real estate. He describes the strategy he used to collect more than 1,600 multifamily units.
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