Bidding war begins for Buffett lunch
The annual online bidding war for lunch with billionaire stock-picker Warren Buffett has begun. But the current $71,100 (€51,193) offer means the auction, which finishes on Friday, still has a way to run before it touches last year's record multi-million dollar bid.
The best offer for three courses with the Sage of Omaha was $71,100 at 08:00 GMT, up from the minimum bid of $25,000. There have been 29 bids so far, with the auction set to close late evening US time on Friday.
All proceeds will go to the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity that offers healthcare, education and housing for those in the Bay Area of the city. Buffett has said the charity is "maybe the most effective organisation I've seen for people down on their luck".
The winning bidder will have the opportunity to take as many as seven friends to dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York. The New York Times has called the restaurant "the steakhouse to end all arguments".
The highest bidder at present is the mysteriously named i***r. Last year's winner, Chinese fund manager Zhao Danyang, used a screen name of greenteabug, trumping rival u**e at the last with a bid of $2.11m. The figure was more than three times the previous record of $650,100.
Shares in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's reinsurance giant, fell to around $70,000 per share in March, their lowest since 2003. The stock is now trading at $86,600.
For more information on the auction, click on the link below.
-- write to mturner@efinancialnews.com
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