|
BIZCHINA> Newsmakers
![]() |
|
Related
$2.1m for a buffet with Buffett
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-30 09:22
It takes millions of dollars to have lunch with someone who controls billions. A Chinese investment fund manager won the chance to have lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett by bidding $2.1 million in the most expensive charity auction on eBay. Zhao Danyang, of Hong Kong-based Pure Heart China Growth Investment Fund, won the auction, which ended on Friday evening with a bid of $2,110,100. A spokeswoman for the Glide Foundation, which receives the proceeds from the auction, identified Zhao as the winner on Saturday. The foundation is a non-profit organization in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that helps serve the poor and homeless people. Zhao and up to seven friends will dine with Buffett, the 76-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York City whenever the two men can schedule it. The five-day online auction ended on Friday night on eBay Inc's website. After starting at $25,000, a battle broke out between two bidders in the final stretch, with bid prices jumping seven-fold in two hours. It is the most expensive charity bid in eBay history, topping the $2.1 million paid for a letter to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a spokeswoman said. "It almost feels like a miracle," Glide's founder Reverend Cecil Williams said. "We are amazed and ready to continue our work of breaking the cycle of poverty." The investment philosophy Zhao's fund describes on its website is similar to Buffett's approach of finding companies with an enduring competitive advantage that are selling for significantly less than they are worth. Chinese media reports said Zhao's Pure Heart is the first legal private investment company (usually called China version of hedge fund) in the country. Zhao graduated from Xiamen University on the Chinese mainland as a system engineer, the Pure Heart website says. He went abroad in 1994, where he honed his investment skills in running industrial enterprises and trading. He began his career in the securities business in 1996 and has more than 10 years' experience in asset management, and has managed overseas and domestic listed securities. Zhao is one of the leading players in promoting the philosophy of "selecting securities investment from the view of an industrial investor". Buffett has been auctioning off lunches online for six years but began auctioning the lunches for Glide off-line in 2000. He offers only one lunch a year.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
|
肇庆市| 宿州市| 镇宁| 鄯善县| 五莲县| 肥西县| 抚州市| 镇赉县| 巴里| 崇阳县| 于都县| 民勤县| 突泉县| 志丹县| 乌审旗| 玛多县| 乾安县| 岳阳县| 台江县| 罗甸县| 旬邑县| 班戈县| 都匀市| 筠连县| 潜山县| 平度市| 天峻县| 济源市| 天气| 峨山| 阳江市| 五寨县| 天峨县| 万载县| 兴海县| 五台县| 乌拉特中旗| 宁河县| 荥阳市| 内江市| 新乡县|