Buffett to Visit Japan Seeking Deals, Praises China’s Prospects

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Bloomberg

By Jamie McGee and Andrew Frye

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he plans to visit Japan next year and hopes his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will make a significant acquisition there, while praising the prospects for economic growth in China.

Buffett said he’ll visit Japan in March with Berkshire’s Eitan Wertheimer, chairman of the unit that acquired Japanese tool manufacturer Tungaloy Corp. in 2008.

“I hope between now and then there will be opportunities for us to buy in Japan,” Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday at a press conference in Omaha, Nebraska, a day after the company’s annual meeting of shareholders. “It’s a big economy.” No deal is imminent, Buffett said.

Buffett’s largest acquisition of a non-U.S. firm was Iscar Metalworking Cos., the Israeli company with operations in China and Japan, in 2006. Berkshire paid $4 billion for an 80 percent stake in Iscar, the company Wertheimer’s father started in 1952. Wertheimer has said his most important role has become accompanying Buffett on trips, helping Berkshire expand abroad.


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-02/buffett-to-visit-japan-seeking-deals-praises-china-s-prospects.html