Warren Buffett has Marcopolo, Lonking on his wish list

Warren Buffett’s search for deals in Brazil and China may put companies from Marcopolo to Odontoprev and Lonking Holdings on his wish list.

The 80-year-old billionaire investor and chairman of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway said at a news conference on May 1 after its shareholder meeting that Brazilian companies are on his “radar screen” and that he would be “delighted to buy businesses in China” as well as Hong Kong. Buffett’s comments came less than two months after agreeing to purchase Wickliffe, Ohio-based Lubrizol for about $9 billion.

The world’s most successful investor is looking outside the US with emerging economies forecast to grow twice as fast as developed nations and near-zero per cent interest rates limiting returns in fixed-income markets. Marcopolo, Brazil’s biggest busmaker, Odontoprev, the country’s largest provider of dental plans, and Lonking, one of China’s biggest makers of construction equipment, are among 27 companies from Brazil and China that meet the acquisition criteria listed in Buffett’s annual report, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“One of the reasons he’s been travelling the globe is to try to find something that makes sense that he can understand in growing economies,” said Barry James, who oversees $2.5 billion as president of James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio. “It’ll probably be in the next year or two that he’ll be doing some of these international deals.”

His James Balanced Golden Rainbow Fund has beaten 94 per cent of competitors in the past five years.

Buffett didn’t return a request for comment emailed to his assistant, Carrie Kizer.

A takeover in either Brazil or China of a publicly traded company would be a first for Berkshire, which has struck at least $50 billion of acquisitions in the US in the past decade for public companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Berkshire owns a stake in BYD Co, the Shenzhen, China-based automaker, through its MidAmerican Energy Holdings unit. Shares of BYD have more than tripled since Buffett agreed to buy 225 million shares of the company in September 2008.