BYD Co., the electric-car maker backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said a unit of Samsung Electronics Co. bought a $449 million (3 billion yuan) stake in the Chinese auto company. Shanghai Samsung Semiconductor bought 52.3 million BYD shares at 57.4 yuan apiece in a private placement that raised 14.5 billion yuan in total from six investors, according to a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange. The fundraising will dilute billionaire Chairman Wang Chuanfu’s stake by about 1.9 percentage points to 18.8 percent. Samsung pursued a stake in BYD after its affiliate was among foreign battery makers left off a list of suppliers approved by China, where sales of EVs are surging and the government has sped up construction of charging points. The world’s largest maker of phones and memory chips said last week investing in BYD would bolster Samsung’s semiconductor business for cars.
