(Yicai Global) Feb. 3 -- BYD’s stock price dropped after Warren Buffett's investment company Berkshire Hathaway further pared its stake in the Chinese electric car and battery giant.

BYD [SHE: 002594] ended 2.5 percent lower at CNY295 (USD43.77) in Shenzhen today, while its Hong Kong-traded shares [HKG: 1211] fell 2.8 percent to close at HKD254.80 (USD32.47), after earlier plunging by as much as 3.2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

Berkshire Hathaway sold 1.55 million of BYD’s Hong Kong shares for HKD352 million (USD44.9 million) on Jan. 27, cutting its holding to 12.9 percent from an initial 24.6 percent, an exchange filing showed yesterday. It did not give a reason.

Berkshire Hathaway has cut its stake in Shenzhen-based BYD eight times since Aug. 24, with the previous sale made on Jan. 9. Hong Kong Stock Exchange rules only require major shareholders to disclose stake changes when a certain percentage line is crossed, so not all of the investment firm's BYD divestments have been made public.

Berkshire Hathaway bought 225 million of BYD's Hong Kong stock for HKD1.8 billion (USD230 million) or HKD8 (USD1.02) apiece on Sept. 29, 2008. The average share price during the last sale was HKD226 (USD28.80), a more than 30-fold return on its original investment.

BYD's net profit likely climbed 425 percent to 458 percent to between CNY16 billion and CNY17 billion (USD2.4 billion and USD2.5 billion) last year on revenue of more than CNY420 billion (USD62.3 billion), it said on Jan. 30.

Editor: Martin Kadiev