Would you believe this !
A 37 year old Chinese businessman,Zhao Danyang paid a record US $ 2.1 Million to win an eBay charity auction last year to lunch with legendary Investor,Warren E Buffett at a steakhouse in New York City
Just a day before the lunch on June 24,2009,Zhao Danyang played the Media by telling them he was going to recommend a Chinese Retailer,WuMart to Warren Buffett….Share Price of WuMart began moving up smartly and by the time Danyang returned to China,the price had shot up 25% and Danyang’s holding in it was up by more than US $ 16 Miilion…so he made a cool,though notional, US $ 14 Million net of his lunch
So the lunch at US $ 2 Million was not so expensive at all !
Warren Buffett has not even committed to WuMart….all that has happened,Danyang insists,is that he has handed over the Annual Reports of WuMart to Warren Buffett during a three hour lunch….and he has no inclination to sell his stake…. The Share Price of WuMart will surely fall once the Chinese realise Warren Buffett treated this Lunch,just as Lunch !
Immediately an Indian scenario comes to mind when Warren Buffett’s name was used…rather misused…It was some years ago and the time of the IPO of the behemoth PSU,ONGC…and Arun Shourie was trying hard to sell the issue….someone started the rumour that even Warren Buffett had committed to Invest in the IPO of ONGC…This was an attempt to hype up the issue. There was simply no shred of truth in this
On the Flipside and Just thinking out loud….what if Warren Buffett does invest in WuMart !?
We would then stop slamming Danyang and be calling him shrewd,savvy and smart !
And a Final Thought….In Future the Charity Auction Bids for Lunch with Warren Buffett will soar to newer records…so maybe it will serve Warren Buffett well for his Charity,to actually invest in WuMart !….Look at the bigger Picture ,Warren !