Chinese Carmaker BYD's IPO Is All About the Warren Buffett Effect
Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for Slate, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post. He has appeared on MSNBC, NPR, HDNet, and Russian TV to discuss the business of cars. He has given presentations on sustainable transportation and the future of mobility and helped put together Art Center College of Design's summits on sustainability. In 2010, his work for Slate's The Big Money was submitted for a National Magazine Award for blogging. In addition to covering cars, he has written about wine and published two books on the subject. He lives in Los Angeles and drives a 1998 Saab 900S but has his eye on an electric motorcycle.BYD initially made a name for itself by taking the lead in the Chinese electric car industry, after having been primarily a battery maker. Things really got interesting for the company in 2009, when Warren Buffett ’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) both made and then toyed with partially exiting a roughly 10% stake that it bought for $232 million. Now BYD is making news again, issuing shares in China (it already trades in Hong Kong) just as the car business there enters a downturn.
Downturn is a relative concept
In China’s booming economy, a downturn means that growth will be measured in the low double-digits — percentages that would cause many Western auto execs to bray with happiness. In China, however, growth needs to be boffo to sustain the valuations to which companies have gotten accustomed. In BYD’s case, Buffett’s attention only adds pressure.
BYD wants to use the funds it raised in its China listing — $219 million — to develop new lithium-ion battery designs (raising obvious questions about whether the old designs are getting the job done). The company wanted to raise more capital, but in light on the slowing China market, it dialed back its expectations.
The big question is whether it’s now benefitting from a Buffett Effect — and an increasingly unjustified one, at that. Is BYD witnessing a bubble build in its shares that may cause its fortunes to collapse more rapidly than its peers? When Buffett first invested in BYD, I thought that a bubble might be developing in the Chinese high-tech battery business. What might be happening now is that BYD is trying to get the last of the dumb money out the Chinese auto investment environment.
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Li-ion is not new to electric cars. Formed in 2000, the company is a pioneer in the advanced development of Lithium Ion battery technology and with over a decade of research and development, Li-ion has been converting internal combustion cars to all
BYD wants to use the funds it raised in its China listing — $219 million — to develop new lithium-ion battery designs (raising obvious questions about whether the old designs are getting the job done). The company wanted to raise more capital,
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