By Lucia Kassai
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is seeking a partnership with Brazilian billionaire Rubens Ometto and soybean grower Blairo Maggi to buy farmland in the South American country, Relatorio Reservado reported.
Berkshire Hathaway would have a minority stake in the venture, which may invest $400 million in land to plant soybean and sugar cane, the Rio de Janeiro-based newsletter said, without saying where it got the information
Rubens Ometto is the controlling shareholder of Cosan SA Industria & Comercio, the world’s biggest sugar-cane processor in a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Maggi is Brazil’s second-biggest soybean grower after Erai Scheffer.
Buffett’s assistant Carrie Kizer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News. Julio Valmorbida, a spokesman for Maggi, didn’t return a call and an e-mail seeking comment. An official at an outside firm representing Cosan, who can’t be named under company policy, didn’t immediately return calls.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucia Kassai in Sao Paulo at [email protected].
