(Yicai Global) Feb. 26 -- Chinese automaker BYD Co. ranked among Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s top 15 largest holdings by value last year, according to an annual letter issued by renowned investor Warren Buffett to the conglomerate's shareholders.

The letter, his 53rd to investors, disclosed the company's biggest investments for 2017. There were few changes bar BYD's introduction and the departure of International Business Machines Corp., in which Berkshire Hathaway held 81 million shares (USD13.5 billion) at the end of the previous year. Wells Fargo & Co. topped this year's list with holdings passing USD29 billion.

Buffett plowed HKD1.8 billion (USD230 million) into BYD in 2008, his first foray into a Chinese firm. Nine years later, he holds 225 million shares, or an 8.2-percent stake, worth HKD17 billion.

"Charlie [Munger, vice chairman] and I view the marketable common stocks that Berkshire owns as interests in businesses, not as ticker symbols to be bought or sold based on their 'chart' patterns, the 'target' prices of analysts or the opinions of media pundits," Buffett said.

"Instead, we simply believe that if the businesses of the investees are successful (as we believe most will be) our investments will be successful as well. Sometimes the payoffs to us will be modest; occasionally the cash register will ring loudly. And sometimes I will make expensive mistakes. Overall -- and over time -- we should get decent results. In America, equity investors have the wind at their back."

One of Buffett's big moves last year was to almost triple holdings in California-based smartphone maker Apple Inc. His firm had 167 million shares in the company at the end of last year, compared with 61 million in 2016. Berkshire Hathaway's share volumes in American Express Co., Charter Communications Inc., The Coca Cola Co., The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Moody's Investor Service and Phillips 66 Co. went unchanged.