瞄准印度，巴菲特的下一笔投资将开先例

沃伦·巴菲特旗下的伯克希尔-哈撒韦公司表示，准备对一家印度企业投资至少2.85亿美元。该公司运营本地流行的数字支付和线上金融服务公司Paytm。

印度孟买媒体《经济时报》上月底报道了伯克希尔商谈上述投资一事。报道指出，若伯克希尔斥资2.854亿美元到3.567亿美元，收购Paytm母公司One97 Communications3%至4%的股权，将是伯克希尔史上首次直接投资印度市场。

彭博社此后报道称，伯克希尔已经同意收购One97 Communications的股权，正式声明将在几天内公布。

报道称，按照伯克希尔的投资金额估算，Paytm的估值超过100亿美元。阿里巴巴集团和日本软银集团均是Paytm的投资方。去年软银旗下的科技投资基金愿景基金曾对其投资10亿美元，之后Paytm的估值达到70亿美元。

Paytm的竞争对手方面，包括最近被沃尔玛收购控股权的印度电商巨头Flipkart旗下平台PhonePe，还有谷歌的Tez。《经济时报》称，Paytm目前通过用户支付时提供折扣大力开拓线下零售业务，也在进军投资和保险领域。

伯克希尔历来规避科技业投资，近几年却一改传统，大手笔买入了苹果公司的股票。然而，伯克希尔以前就投资过金融服务业，持有的股份包括华尔街巨头高盛、富国银行、美国银行和全球信用卡巨头美国运通。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is said to be preparing to invest at least $285 million in the Indian company that runs the popular digital payments and online financial services firm, Paytm.

The Mumbai-based Economic Times reported the talks Monday, noting that if Berkshire follows through by paying $285.4 million to $356.7 million for a 3-4% stake in One97 Communications, it would be Buffett’s first direct investment in India.

Bloomberg subsequently reported that Berkshire has agreed to buy the stake, and a formal announcement will follow in the next few days.

According to the publications, the investment will value Paytm at over $10 billion. Other backers include Alibaba and SoftBank—when the latter’s Vision Fund put $1 billion into Paytm last year, the company was valued at $7 billion.

Paytm’s rivals include PhonePe, owned by Flipkart—the Indian ecommerce giant in which Walmart recently bought a controlling stake—and Google’s Tez. According to The Economic Times, Paytm is currently pushing hard into offline retail through a discount scheme for customers who pay with the Paytm app, and is also delving into the investment and insurance sectors.

Berkshire Hathaway has traditionally shied away from technology investments, but changed tack a couple years back by buying into Apple big-time. However, the company certainly has a long track record of investing in financial services, with holdings including Goldman Sachs, American Express, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.