MOSCOW (MRC) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said trimmed or eliminated its stakes in several pharmaceutical companies, and reported a small new stake in a Merck & Co (MRK.N) spinoff, Organon & Co (OGN.N), said Reuters.
In the second quarter, Berkshire said it exited a USD180 million stake in Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) and reduced investments in Abbvie Inc (ABBV.N), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) and Merck. It also shed a USD411 million stake in paint maker Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (AXTA.N), a Berkshire holding since 2015.
The changes were disclosed in a regulatory filing detailing Berkshire's U.S.-listed holdings as of June 30. Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks in 2021, including in the second quarter when it sold USD1.1 billion more stocks than it bought. That suggests Buffett and his investment managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler remain wary of valuations as stock prices regularly set new highs.
The Standard & Poor's (.SPX) has doubled from its March 2020 trough early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Berkshire has instead bought back about USD14.3 billion of its own stock between January and late July though its share price also set records, and now sits just 2% below its May 7 peak.
Berkshire also reported lowered stakes in Chevron Corp (CVX.N), General Motors Co (GM.N), media company Liberty Global Plc (LBTYA.O), insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos (MMC.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N). It reported increased stakes in supermarket chain Kroger Co (KR.N), home furnishings chain RH (RH.N) and Marsh rival Aon Plc (AON.N), which under regulatory pressure called off a $30 billion merger with Willis Towers Watson Plc last month.
As per MRC, Wanhua Chemical, a global leader in the production and marketing of polyurethanes, petrochemicals and fine chemicals, has received the inaugural “Excellence Award” from Axalta. The Excellence Award is given to suppliers, who exhibit progressively exceptional overall quality, service, technology and total capacity performance for three consecutive years or longer. The Excellence Award winner also demonstrates an exceptional commitment to helping Axalta achieve its strategic initiatives.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
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