Top finance guru dumps Tesco shares

16-Oct-2014 - Last updated on 17-Oct-2014 at 11:50 GMT

Warren Buffett: 'I made a mistake on Tesco'

The world’s richest investor, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, has sold more than 245M shares in supermarket giant Tesco, after describing his investment as “a huge mistake” earlier this month.

The sale, which brings Buffett’s holding in the troubled supermarket to below 3%, was revealed in a statement to the London Stock Exchange earlier this week (October 13).

At the end of last year Berkshire Hathaway owned 3.7% of Tesco’s stock, a stake valued at £1bn.

But Buffet told US TV network CNBC earlier this month: “I made a mistake on Tesco. That was a huge mistake by me.”

‘I made a mistake on Tesco’

He went on to say Tesco was the only share in his portfolio of top 15 buys that recorded a loss last year. His profitable investments included: Coca-Cola, IBM, Gillette and American Express.

Tesco’s share price has tumbled more than 50% over the past 52 weeks, reflecting falling sales and an admission that it had overstated half-year profits by about £250M. The retailer’s shares fell by 1.7% to 172p yesterday (October 16). That level was a whisker above the 12-year low of 171.5p seen on October 3.

No one from the supermarket was available to respond to FoodManufacture.co.uk enquires today (October 17).

Earlier this week Tesco suspended three more executives as the probe into the missing millions continued.