Berkshire CEO says Japanese bond yields not a challenge for trading houses

Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO Greg Abel said that rising yields in Japan isn’t impacting the major trading houses in the country the holding company has stakes in. 

In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, Abel said that while high yields are topical in Japan — with the nation’s 10-year bond yield hitting a 30-year high this week — it’s manageable, at least for major trading firms in the country. 

“Not a single one of the trading companies raised it as a fundamental challenge right now,” he said. “They’re still relatively modest when you think about it,” Abel added, noting that Japan’s yields, while at multi-decade highs, are still low relatively to other bond yields across the world. 

While Japan’s multi-decade high in its 10-year bond yield is just above 3%, the U.S. 10-year Treasury Yield hit an almost three-year high on Tuesday when it crossed 4.8%.

Berkshire Hathaway has a greater than 10% stake in five of Japan’s largest trading houses — Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo — which deal with everything from energy to consumer goods. Abel was visiting Tokyo, which included checking in with those five firms along with Berkshire’s other investments in the country. 

Abel added that he expects Berkshire will still raise debt as appropriate in yen, despite the high yields.

The investments in the trading houses were originally made under a guarantee that Berkshire would never take double-digit stakes in any of the five. However, Abel said the company received permission from each of the individual trading houses to now own more than 10% in each six years after the initial investment. 

Abel reiterated that the company continues to see value in these investments, which have yielded strong returns for Berkshire as shares of the trading houses have grown substantially since the initial investment six years ago. 

“It’s really, one, a long-term investment that we intend to hold for many decades, and then, secondly, we’ve been building really strong relationships with each of the companies, and looking at other opportunities here in Japan, and for that matter, abroad,” he said. “And those are just exceptional discussions.”