(Bloomberg) -- Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. sought to clarify that comments by its chief executive officer on new investments by Warren Buffett were referring to previous statements from Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Shares in the trading houses — known as sogo shosha — advanced Wednesday after Barron’s quoted Sumitomo’s Masayuki Hyodo as saying Berkshire’s stake “is increasing — not only Sumitomo, but all five trading companies.”
A Sumitomo spokesperson told Bloomberg News that Hyodo’s response referred to Berkshire’s previous public comments about potentially boosting its stakes in the companies to 9.9%. Sumitomo is only aware of Berkshire’s holdings via public disclosures, and the US company currently holds 8.23% of the Japanese firm, the spokesperson said.
The so-called Oracle of Omaha traveled to Japan last April to meet with executives from the five companies for the first time. Berkshire subsequently raised its stakes in the trading houses to an average of more than 8.5%. It said in June that it hopes to eventually own 9.9% of each of the firms, and that it won’t make purchases past that point without approval from the respective boards.
The purchases by the legendary US investor helped to propel gains in the Japanese stock market last year, with the market trying to scope out what his next targets might be.
Sumitomo Corp. jumped as much as 3% on Wednesday. The other major trading houses also increased, with Mitsubishi Corp. climbing as much as 5% and Mitsui & Co. as much as 3.5%. The similar intraday gains for Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp. were 2.6% and 4.2%, respectively.
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