Berkshire Hathaway has completely divested

Berkshire Hathaway's holdings of PetroChina over time

  • 0 shares by October 18, 2007 - Click herefor the AP story.
  • 652,875,000 shares as of September 30, 2007 - Click here for the 13G SEC filing, reducing its stake to 3.1% of all H shares.
  • 914,133,000 shares as of September 27, 2007
    1,148,269,000 shares as of September 26, 2007 - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 234,136,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 4.33% of all
  • 1,148,269,000 shares as of September 25, 2007
    1,368,769,000 shares as of September 24, 2007 - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 220,500,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 5.44% of all H shares.
  • 1,470,601,000 shares as of September 21, 2007
    1,537,215,000 shares as of September 20, 2007 - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 66,614,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 6.97% of all H shares.
  • 1,687,730,000 shares as of September 13, 2007
    1,732,868,000 shares as of September 12, 2007 - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 45,138,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 7.99% of all H shares.
  • 1,884,654,700 shares as of September 6, 2007
    1,912,658,700     shares as of September 5, 2007     - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 28,004,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 8.93% of all H shares.
  • 2,051,107,000 shares as of August 29, 2007
    2,143,765,000 shares as of August 28, 2007     - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 92,658,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 9.72% of all H shares.
  • 2,313,504,000 shares as of July 12, 2007
    2,330,404,000 shares as of July 11, 2007- Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing it sold 16,900,000 H shares, reducing its stake to 10.96% of all H shares.
  • 2,338,961,000 shares as of December 31, 2006 - Click here for the annual report.
  • 2,347,761,000 shares as of April 24, 2003 - Click here for the filing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Berkshire Hathaway's holdings of PetroChina were worth:
  • $3.70 billion on July 11, 2007 (at $1.59/share).

Berkshire Hathaway's position


While Sudan's oil revenue has been providing arms and funding for the genocide in Darfur, Berkshire Hathaway had been the largest investor in PetroChina (until the fall of 2007).

PetroChina's closely related parent, CNPC, is Sudan's largest partner in the oil industry there. We hold PetroChina accountable, just as we would CNPC, since the "separation between these two companies is largely cosmetic" and they "should not be rewarded" for creating distinctions on paper to obscure their connections to the genocide. Read more about China's Problem Oil Companies in Sudan. (Quotations from the Yale ACIR report.)

Berkshire Hathaway, by virtue of its very large holdings in PetroChina, was especially well positioned to play an important role in helping to end the genocide. Berkshire Hathaway can either strenuously and publicly engage PetroChina to effect a change in the behavior of the government of Sudan or divest. However, instead of taking decisive action, Berkshire Hathaway advanced weak rationalizations in an attempt to justify its investments and distance itself from involvement in this first genocide of the 21st century.

Berkshire Hathaway completely divested its holdings of PetroChina, but never acknowledged the connection of PetroChina to the funding of the genocide.
    • Click here for the FidelityOutOfSudan letter to the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors- May 21, 2007
    • Click here for the FidelityOutOfSudan letter to Warren Buffett - March 9, 2007
    • Click here for the FidelityOutOfSudan press release on Berkshire Hathaway and PetroChina - March 9, 2007
    • Click here for "PetroChina, CNPC, and Sudan: Perpetuating Genocide" - April 15, 2007 report from the Sudan Divestment Task Force
    • Click here for "The Detrimental Presence of PetroChina/CNPC in Sudan: One Mind, One Will, One Corporation" - July 26, 2007 report from the Sudan Divestment Task Force
    • Click here for Berkshire Hathaway's statement on PetroChina - February 21, 2007 (Also available here.)