Buffett Said to Call for Study of Posco Bid

March 24, 2010, 6:28 AM

It seems that Warren E. Buffett is not too happy about Posco’s potential bid for Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

The world’s No. 4 steelmaker said that Mr. Buffett and other shareholders had  called for a thorough review of the possible ramifications of such a bid, because of  concern about potential weakness in the industry, Bloomberg News reported.

In January, Posco’s chief, Chung Joon Yang, said the company was mulling a bid for Daewoo Shipbuilding as part of the steel maker’s expansion plans.

But Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, along with other investors, both foreign and domestic, “have expressed concerns that the shipbuilding industry may go through a prolonged downturn,” Choi Doo Jin, a Posco spokesman, told Bloomberg News.

The comments came after a report in the Korea Economic Daily, which said Berkshire Hathaway and other foreign investors let Posco know that they wouldn’t back its bid for the shipbuilder.

As of January, Mr. Buffett held a roughly 4.5 percent stake in Posco.