Warren Buffett and George Soros, life in the old dogs yet!

While Warren Buffett and George Soros may be names from the past that many modern day investors know little about, the last few weeks have shown there is still life in the old dogs yet. Let’s not forget these two giants of the investment world are multi billionaires and have been around for decades. George Soros “broke the Bank of England” making billions of dollars as the UK government caved in and suspended membership of the ERM. Warren Buffett has taken a long-term approach to investment and banked billions of dollars along the way.

Apple investment

Despite publicly declaring that he was a technophobe in years gone by, Warren Buffett recently increased his stake in Apple to become the largest independent shareholder. Having acquired 75 million shares in Apple, on top of the 165.3 million shares held at the end of 2017, his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway now owns 4.8% of the company. The stake is valued at in excess of $40 billion!

In light of the announcement of a further investment in the company by Warren Buffett, Apple shares jumped sharply after a period of concern. Indeed the company also welcomed him into the fold, something which Apple has not necessarily been guilty of in the past. It seems as though even having a connection with Warren Buffett is enough to refocus the minds of investors who had begun to turn negative on the company.

Tesla

The trials and tribulations of Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla have been well documented in recent times. There seems to be a constant battle between the company’s CEO and the investment world with many analysts now expressing real concern about the future. Despite constant rumours of a multibillion-dollar fundraising the company insists no additional funding is required. This has led to a drop in the share price and a move to junk status for the company’s bonds. Step forward George Soros!

We now know that George Soros has been mopping up Tesla bonds in the market and it now appears that indirectly he was involved in a recent fundraising. It appears that Tesla recently raised funds by securitising forward income for its solar panel division. This fundraising would appear to be a pure technical situation as it will not make a dent in the financial resources required for the electric car business. Is George Soros hovering like a vulture waiting to pounce on Tesla?

Subtle investments behind the scenes

Slowly but surely Warren Buffett continues to build up a significant stake in Apple while George Soros has been in communication with Elon Musk – perhaps another misunderstood billionaire?

We live in a world where information is passed from person to person in a split second, markets react in the blink of an eye and many of the strategies of years gone by have been binned. However, events of the last few weeks show that the old investment dogs of years gone by are still around, still kicking and can certainly show the “new kids on the block” a thing or two about making money.

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