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Berkshire sells off PetroChina stake, denies Sudan link

""If it [Petrochina's stock] went down a lot, I'd buy it back."

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman

Billionaire Warren Buffett said on Thursday his company had sold all shares of Chinese oil conglomerate PetroChina Co, a corporation that activist investors have urged him to divest in because of its ties to Sudan.

But the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc told Fox Business Network the decision to sell was based on the shares' valuation and had nothing to do with the Sudan connection.

"If it went down a lot I'd buy it back," he said.

early exit

Berkshire made about US$3.5 billion on a US$500 million investment, Buffett said, but "we still sold it too soon. I left a lot of money on the table."

Berkshire bought the PetroChina shares in 2003, when it traded for US$140.78 a share, and the Omaha, Nebraska-base company's sales of PetroChina stock were first reported in July.

Last week PetroChina's stock reached new heights for the company. Shares traded in the US fell US$12.98, or 4.9 percent, on Thursday to close at US$250.72.

Human-rights groups have accused the Sudanese government of using its oil wealth to wage genocide against the people in the western Darfur region, and some groups have suggested that PetroChina has supported the Sudanese government.

That is why activist investors have pushed Buffett to cut ties with PetroChina, but he rejected those calls at Berkshire's annual meeting in May.

Before the share sales began, Berkshire was PetroChina's second-largest shareholder, after the company's unlisted state-owned parent, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

CNPC owns 88.2 percent of PetroChina, its annual report last year showed. And CNPC signed a 20-year oil deal with Sudan in June.

no to bear stearns

Buffett also said in the Fox interview that a recent New York Times report that he considered buying a stake in Bear Stearns Cos -- the US' fifth-largest investment bank -- was not true.
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