According to a regulatory filing, Berkshire Hathaway may reduce its 27.5% stake in The Kraft Heinz Company and potentially exit this investment made over a decade ago, which has proven unsuccessful for the conglomerate's Chairman, Warren Buffett. The Kraft Heinz Company, whose products include Heinz ketchup and Oscar Mayer meats, submitted a prospectus supplement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, intended to register the potential resale of Berkshire's 325.4 million shares.
Berkshire is by far the largest shareholder of The Kraft Heinz Company, having helped orchestrate its merger in 2015 with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital. The conglomerate reduced its stake in Kraft Heinz in 2023. The merger of the former Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz Company has been disappointing, and the combined entity announced in September that it would split into two separate companies later this year. Buffett told media at the time that he and Greg Abel, then Vice Chairman and now CEO of Berkshire, did not approve of the split. Kraft Heinz's stock closed Tuesday up 23 cents at $36.76, valuing Berkshire's stake at approximately $7.7 billion. In after-hours trading following the filing of the prospectus supplement, Kraft Heinz's stock fell 4.9% to $34.95.