Warren Buffett has long been a fan of China, admiring its rapid growth and global influence. What is also becoming clear is that China is a big fan of his.
A Chinese online-game developer last week bid $2.35 million in a charity auction for the privilege of dining with Mr. Buffett. Zhu Ye, the chairman of Dalian Zeus Entertainment Co., is expected to bring up to seven guests to the U.S. to have lunch with the billionaire investor.
This year’s bid is one of the highest in 16 years of the auction, through which Mr. Buffett has raised $ 20 million for a San Francisco charity. It is also the second time someone from China has been named as the top bidder; in 2008, investor Zhao Danyang paid $2.1 million.
“I think there is great interest in the stock market, and they associate me with the stock market,” Mr. Buffett said of Chinese investors in an interview.
The auction was the latest sign of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chief’s rising popularity in China. At the company’s annual meeting last month, more than 200 people traveled from China to listen to Mr. Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger answer shareholder questions. The group was large enough that, for the first time, Berkshire set up a special overflow room for Chinese attendees to listen to a simultaneous translation of the question-and-answer session.
Not all of those attendees were Berkshire shareholders, but many in the group were “big hitters” in Chinese business and investing, Mr. Buffett said. A decade ago, barely a handful of people attended from the country.
“They generally regard him as having a Midas touch,” Willy Lam, a China politics expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said of Chinese investors’ view of Mr. Buffett.
Chinese investors began to follow Mr. Buffett and his investing principles about a decade ago after media outlets there started covering Berkshire. Guo Guanchang, a Chinese billionaire and head of Fosun Group, who has been called China’s Warren Buffett, said in an interview last year that Mr. Buffett became a well-known figure in his country because of news reports about his investment record and Chinese investors’ growing interest in stock markets.
In recent years, the U.S. has seen a meaningful uptick in investment from China, including in real estate and equities.
At last month’s Berkshire meeting, Messrs. Buffett and Munger answered several questions about China. Mr. Buffett called the country’s growth “totally miraculous.”
“I would not have believed a country of that size could move so far, so fast,” he said. “They found a way to unlock their potential.” Mr. Munger, also an ardent China fan, was equally bullish.
China’s embrace of Mr. Buffett has at times created headaches for Berkshire.
In 2006, a lawyer for the conglomerate filed an application to trademark the Buffett name, partly because many websites of Chinese origin had sprung up using Mr. Buffett’s name to pitch their services, people familiar with the matter have said. The lawyer later dropped the push, deciding it was too much of a hassle.
Reporters from at least seven Chinese media outlets have covered the Berkshire meeting in recent years. Mr. Buffett says he does an extended interview with China Central Television every year around the time of the annual meeting, where he offers his views on topics such as good investing and stock-market trends.
Mr. Buffett’s comments and actions are closely followed by Chinese investors. After the billionaire investor heaped praise on menswear label Dalian Dayang Trands Co. in 2009, the company’s stock soared 70%. Mr. Buffett had visited the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian two years before to inaugurate a factory set up by Iscar, a unit of Berkshire-owned IMC Group. He met Li Guilian, the founder of Trands, at the time.
Nearly all of Mr. Buffett’s more than 20 suits and sport coats are tailored by “Madame Li,” Mr. Buffett said in the interview. He even got his friend Bill Gates to buy suits from Trands, according to a video testimonial Mr. Buffett did for the clothier.
In December, shares of Chinese electric-car maker BYD Co. plummeted 47%, partly because of rumors that Berkshire was selling its 9.9% stake in the company. When Berkshire bought the BYD stake in 2008, its shares jumped. Mr. Buffett said in the interview that Berkshire hasn’t sold and doesn’t plan to sell any BYD stock.
Mr. Buffett, 84 years old, has traveled to China four times, beginning in 1995 with a 17-day educational and pleasure trip organized by Mr. Gates. Mr. Buffett, who famously eats little other than American junk food, says he didn’t touch a morsel of Chinese fare because his group had a chef trained in the art of burgers and fries. He even found a six-pack of his favorite Cherry Coke awaiting him when he climbed to the top of the Great Wall.
By contrast, he has traveled to India just once.
Berkshire also made a profitable investment in PetroChina Co., buying about 1.3% of the company for less than $ 500 million in 2003. The conglomerate made more than $3 billion on the investment upon selling the stake four years later.
The auction benefits the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco charity that works for the city’s poor and homeless.
Mr. Buffett said he has never had a bad experience dining with previous charity-auction winners and was looking forward to meeting Dalian Zeus executives. The company last year conducted a reverse merger with publicly traded Dalian Kemian Wood Industry Co., a wood-flooring company. It has since shifted its business focus to online games. Listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, Dalian Zeus has a market capitalization of roughly $ 3.5 billion.
Under the auction’s rules, both individuals and companies can bid. The winner can invite up to seven guests of his or her choice to the lunch. A representative for Dalian Zeus didn’t respond to a request for comment.