Berkshire Hathaway, the company run by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, announced Monday that it had taken stakes in Japanese trading houses amounting to over $6 billion.
The company said in a statement (pdf) that it acquired stakes of about 5 percent in Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo Corp., with the purchases made over the past year. Shares of the five companies surged by at least 4 percent in Monday trading on the Tokyo stock exchange after news of Birkshire’s investment broke.
