Warren Buffett invests in Lanxess

Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company run by famed investor Warren Buffett, has acquired a 3% stake in specialty chemical producer Lanxess for $208 million. News of the purchase boosted Lanxess’s share price by about 10%. Berkshire’s investment appears to endorse Lanxess’s strategy to reduce costs, off-load commodity chemicals, and expand into specialties. Lanxess sold half its rubber business to Saudi Aramco for $1.3 billion in 2015 and acquired Chemtura for $2.5 billion last year. Buffett has a fondness for the chemical industry. Berkshire owns the chemical maker Lubrizol and for eight years owned $3 billion in preferred Dow Chemical shares.