(Yicai Global) Feb. 10 -- BYD’s shares fell after Warren Buffet’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway cut its stake in the Chinese electric car and battery giant.

BYD’s stock [SHE: 002594] fell 2.2 percent in Shanghai trading today to finish at CNY281.86 (USD41.41), while its shares in Hong Kong [HKG: 1211] ended down 3.5 percent at HKD240.60 (USD30.65).

Berkshire sold more than 4.23 million of BYD’s Hong Kong shares at an average price of HKD257.90 for a total of HKD1.1 billion (USD140.1 million) on Feb. 3, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.

Since Aug. 24, Berkshire has offloaded 95 million BYD’s H shares, cutting its stake to 11.9 percent from 24.6 percent. It still owns 130 million of the shares. The previous sale disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was on Jan. 27, when the investment firm sold 1.55 million BYD H shares for HKD352 million (USD44.8 million).

Hong Kong Stock Exchange rules only require major shareholders to disclose stake changes when a certain percentage threshold is crossed, so not all of Berkshire's BYD divestments have been made public.

Berkshire bought 225 million of BYD's Hong Kong stock for HKD1.8 billion or HKD8 (USD1.02) apiece in September 2008. The average share price during the last sale was HKD257.90, a more than 32-fold return on its original investment.

BYD said on Jan. 30 that it expects net profit to have jumped 425 percent to 458 percent to between CNY16 billion and CNY17 billion (USD2.4 billion and USD2.5 billion) last year from 2021. Revenue likely exceeded CNY420 billion (USD53.5 billion).

Editor: Futura Costaglione