Investors longing to match the success of renowned American investor Warren Buffett will get the chance to invest alongside him for a fraction of the price after the launch of a new exchange-traded product (ETP).
The Leverage Shares Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) Tracker ETP will allow investors to buy into the company for as little as £5. There is also a more volatile option, the Leverage Shares 2x Long Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) ETP Securities, which allows investors to double their returns whether they be gains or losses.
This is the first time UK investors will be able to buy fractional shares in Warren Buffett’s world-renowned company, which has a market capitalisation of $648.4bn (£490bn).
The firm is a conglomerate of more than 60 investee companies, owning a number of brands outright such as battery maker Duracell, while taking big positions in publicly listed companies such as consumer brands firm Kraft Heinz and credit card firm American Express.
Shares in the trust were previously unaffordable to most investors with a single share costing more than $430,000. There is a ‘B’ share class available to ordinary investors, but at around $280 per share, these are not cheap and will likely deter many.
Dr. Dobromir Kamburov, chief operating officer at Leverage Shares, said: “At circa $280 per share, these B Class stocks are still not exactly cheap.”
Berkshire Hathaway is one of the most famous investment companies worldwide making investors around 10 times their money over the past 30 years. However, more recently the firm has struggled. Indeed, over the past decade it has failed to beat the S&P 500 and over five years has made investors 76.5%, 34.9 percentage points behind the US index.
The new Berkshire Hathaway tracker is one of 42 ETPs today by Leverage Shares, the largest quantity to be launched in a single day according to the London Stock Exchange. This brings the company’s total exchange-traded products ETPs available to 145.
Other new ETPs include a range that track Ark Invest’s thematic exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including ARK Innovation (ARKK), ARK Next Generation Internet (ARKW) and ARK Genomic Resolution (ARKG).
Leverage Shares also broadened its portfolio range with ETPs focusing on investments within the healthcare, airlines, financial sectors.
Kamburov said: “We already have these on offer for big names such as Tesla, Netflix and Microsoft and wanted to add some diversification to big tech through Berkshire Hathaway, some healthcare names, airlines and other growth stock trackers.”