Berkshire's latest sale of yen-denominated debt prompts speculation

For the third straight year, Berkshire Hathaway is raising billions of yen by selling debt denominated in the Japanese currency.

The offering includes ¥40B (around $365 million) of 5-year notes and another ¥40B of 20-year notes, along with ¥80B (around $730 billion) of 10-year notes.

The sale comes after the revelation last August that Berkshire had bought roughly 5% stakes in each of five leading Japanese trading companies.

At that time, Berkshire said it could raise those stakes to as high as 9.9%, if the prices were attractive.

Berkshire says it expects to use the sale proceeds for "general corporate purposes," including the refinancing of debt that matured in March.

There's speculation one of those purposes may be making more equity investments in Japan.

Bloomberg quotes analysts at Jefferies Financial Group as noting the amount raised would be "just enough" for Berkshire to raise each of its Japanese trading company stakes by 1 percentage point.

Nikkei reports shares of two of those companies rose this week on speculation of more Berkshire buying.

It cites a strategist in Japan saying that "if you procure low interest yen-denominated corporate bonds, and then buy low-volatility stocks with high dividend yields, you will almost certainly generate profits."

Buffett's wealth grows but he drops from Forbes' top five

For the first time since 1993, Buffett is not among the top five names in the Forbes annual ranking of the world's billionaires.

That's despite a 42% increase in his estimated wealth from $67.5 billion last year to $96 billion this year.

Good, but not as good as Tesla CEO Elon Musk's jump from $24.6 billion to $151 billion, which put him in the #2 slot.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos remains number one with $177 billion. 

The top five is rounded out by LVMH's Bernard Arnault & family ($150 billion), Microsoft's Bill Gates ($124 billion) and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg ($97 billion.)

Buffett is number six, followed by Oracle's Larry Ellison with $93 billion.

The Forbes annual list used stock prices and exchange rates as of March 5.

It also has a real-time ranking.  On that list, Buffett's wealth is estimated to be $100.6 billion, but he's still number six after Zuckerberg with $113.8 billion.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - April 9, 2021

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of December 31, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on February 16, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of December 31, 2020 as disclosed in New England Asset Management’s 13F filing on February 16, 2021.

In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch