US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, on his maiden visit to India, said on Tuesday he was looking at investing in the fast-growing South Asian nation.
The chairman of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, which last week bought US lubricant maker Lubrizol for US$9 billion, said “we need to make large commitments so India is a very logical place to look.”
The 80-year-old Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha” for his investment savvy, added that he did not consider India with its US$1.3 trillion economy “as an emerging market, I consider India a very big market.”
“We hope to spend some money here,” said Buffett, whose company — which has much of its investments in North America — was sitting on a US$38 billion cash pile at the end of last year.
Buffett, who said he was looking at India’s consumer goods and financial services sector, was speaking in the country’s high-tech hub of Bangalore.
Buffett arrived in India on Tuesday to join Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in seeking to persuade India’s super-rich to part with some of their wealth as part of “The Giving Pledge” campaign started by the two tycoons last year.
Speaking on the US economic recovery, Buffett said that “the American economy is getting better month by month.”
He added that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that have left more than 22,000 dead or missing was “a great human tragedy,” but “is not going to stop the growth in the world economy.”
Buffett dodged questions about whether India-born Ajit Jain, head of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s reinsurance operations, might succeed him, but heaped lavish praise on him.
Jain has long been mentioned as a contender to eventually replace Buffett.
“He is someone with incredible talent. He has probably made a lot more money for Berkshire Hathaway than I have,” Buffett said, adding that he felt Jain was “like a brother or a son.”
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