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New York: Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the holding company controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, said on Thursday it has taken an 8.6 per cent stake in Kraft Foods Inc and invested in British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc.
The 132.4 million share stake in Kraft was worth about $4.32 billion as of December 31, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing detailing many of Berkshire's stock investments. These were valued at $68.8 billion at the time.
Berkshire said it owned 1.51 million American depositary receipts of Glaxo, Europe's largest drugmaker, valued at $76.1 million, after investing in several other health care companies in the previous year. It also revealed a 10.96 million share stake of Trane Inc, a maker of heating and air-conditioning systems, worth $512.1 million.
In a separate filing, Berkshire said it boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Co, the fifth-largest US bank, to 311.4 million shares, or a 9.4 per cent stake.
Speculation
Berkshire said it had accumulated more than half its Kraft stake by June 30, 2007. Speculation it was buying shares surfaced in May, but Berkshire did not confirm it at the time.
Kraft products include its namesake cheese, Maxwell House coffee, Oreo cookies and Oscar Mayer deli. Altria Group Inc spun off Kraft at the end of March 2007.
"He likes brand names with good franchises and clearly Kraft has a number of those," said Jerry Bruni, a portfolio manager at J.V. Bruni and Co in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which invests $650 million, including $30 million in Berkshire.
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