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In a filing with the SEC made public just moments ago, Berkshire reveals that as of September 30 its controversial stake in the Chinese energy company had dropped to just 3.1%. That follows a flurry of selling in September that brought the holdings from from just under 10% when the month started.
All this month we've been following the declines in Berkshire's PetroChina stake through filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange. Today's U.S. filing was required because Berkshire is no longer a 5% owner of PetroChina.
Berkshire Hathaway's Disappearing PetroChina Holdings |
| Date | Days Elapsed | Shares Held | Stake | Change | Change/Day |
| July 12 | 2,313,504,000 | 10.96% | |||
| Aug. 29 | 48 | 2,051,107,000 | 9.72% | -279,297,000 | -5,818,688 |
| Sept. 6 | 8 | 1,884,654,700 | 8.93% | -166,452,300 | -20,806,538 |
| Sept. 13 | 7 | 1,687,730,000 | 7.99% | -196,924,700 | -28,132,100 |
| Sept. 21 | 8 | 1,470,601,000 | 6.97% | -217,129,000 | -27,141,125 |
| Sept. 25 | 4 | 1,148,269,000 | 5.44% | -322,332,000 | -80,583,000 |
| Sept. 30 | 5 | 652,875,000 | 3.09% | -495,394,000 | -99,078,800 |
As the table shows, the selling has been accelerating over the last few weeks, reaching an average selling rate of almost 100 million shares a day at the end of September.
This could be the last we hear for awhile. Berkshire is not required to reveal any additional sales since it owns less than 5% of the outstanding shares. For all we know, the entire stake may have been liquidated by now. Given the pace of selling, I wouldn't be surprised.
To catch up on the controversy surrounding Buffett's PetroChina holdings and what might be motivating the sales, check out some of the previous WBW posts on the subject.
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