Reuters and staff reporter

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has further cut its stake in BYD (1211) to less than 5 percent.

Berkshire sold nearly 1.4 million Hong Kong-listed BYD shares for HK$345 million, according to a filing yesterday with the Hong Kong bourse.

That reduced its stake in the Chinese auto giant's shares to 4.94 percent from 5.06 percent. Dropping below the 5 percent threshold means that Berkshire is no longer obligated to disclose any further sales or whether it exits its position altogether.

Buffett's company began investing in Shenzhen-based BYD in 2008, when it paid US$230 million (HK$1.8 billion) for about 225 million shares, then equal to a 10 percent stake.

It began selling shares in 2022 after BYD's share price had risen more than 20-fold.

Berkshire's investment in BYD is the brainchild of Charlie Munger, Berkshire's late vice chairman.

In other automotive news, Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng (9868) has established project houses for engineers in partnership with German automaker Volkswagen to accelerate the development process of new EV architecture, it said yesterday.

The new establishments, to be located in China's Guangzhou and Hefei, are warehouses for engineers from both parties to work together, it said.

The warehouses are aimed at helping the parties begin production for jointly-developed architecture - configuration of electronic components, modules, and network within a vehicle - two years from now.

"From 2026, all-electric vehicles of the Volkswagen brand in China will be equipped with this very powerful and efficient architecture," said Ralf Brandstatter, a member of the board of management of Volkswagen for China.

The establishments are part of an agreement between the two parties, in which Volkswagen plans to use its new architecture for intelligent and electric cars to make more affordable EVs in its biggest market.

XPeng and Volkswagen forged a partnership last year when Volkswagen bought 4.99 percent of XPeng for around US$700 million, with plans to jointly launch two Volkswagen-branded EV models by 2026.

Shares of XPeng rose nearly 4 percent in Hong Kong yesterday.

Berkshire started selling BYD shares in 2022 after they had risen more than 20-fold. REUTERS

Berkshire trims BYD stake to under 5pc