(Yicai) Sept. 22 -- BYD’s stock fell after Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of Warren Buffett, sold its entire stake in the Chinese new energy vehicle giant.

BYD [HKG: 1211] was trading down 3.4 percent at HKD109.60 (USD14.11) as of 2.45 p.m. in Hong Kong today. Its Shenzhen-listed shares [SHE: 002594] fell 1.4 percent to CNY107.59 (USD15.13).

“It is true,” a staffer at BYD’s investor relations department told Yicai today, after CNBC yesterday reported that Berkshire Hathaway had fully divested, citing a filing by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the company’s subsidiary that held BYD’s shares.

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bought 225 million Hong Kong shares of BYD for HKD8 (USD1.03) apiece. It began selling the stake in August 2022. According to data compiled by Yicai, the investment firm sold BYD shares in at least 16 batches, earning more than HKD8.1 billion (USD1 billion).

Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD’s public relations department, published a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, thanking Buffett and his longtime business partner Charlie Thomas Munger for their recognition of BYD and showing appreciation for their investment, assistance, and companionship over the past 17 years.

BYD reported an operating of CNY371.3 billion (USD52.2 billion) in the first half of the year, up 23 percent from a year earlier, according to the Shenzhen-based company’s latest earnings report. Net profit widened 14 percent to CNY15.5 billion (USD2.2 billion).

BYD sold 2.15 million vehicles in the six months ended June 30, up 33 percent from the same period last year.

Editor: Futura Costaglione