Warren Buffet avoids doing business in Russia because of the threats of violence and asset seizure there. The quality of the management of a company is more important than current events when it comes to investing in it.
When he invested in Salomon Brothers in 1987, the bank owned an oil company with major interests in Siberia that soon ran into problems.
The billionaire investor said that they were welcome as long as they were drilling. It was kind of extreme what happened with us.
They said if we sent in the people to get out the equipment, not only would the equipment not get out, but the people wouldn't get out.
It might take us quite a while before we want to spend a lot of money on Russia.
Even though both Russian and Chinese oil companies were bargains based on metrics such as total reserves, refining capacity, and cash flows, the Chinese oil company was chosen by Buffett to invest in.
I decided I was more comfortable buying PetroChina than I was buying Yukos, according to Warren Buffet.
During the Daily Journal's annual meeting this month, Charlie Munger, the business partner and vice-chairman of the company, spoke about his wariness of Russia.
He was asked why he was happy to invest in China when Jeffrey Gundlach, another top investor, had called the country "uninvestable" due to the risks of false data.
Munger said that he felt about Russia the way he felt about China.
When the Russia-Ukraine conflict flared up in March of last year, CNBC asked Warren Buffet if macroeconomics influenced his investing decisions. He recalled buying his first stock in the spring of 1942, a few months after Pearl Harbor, when the US was getting clobbered in the South Pacific.
He invested all of his $120 in savings despite the macro factors not looking good.
He explained that he was doing it based on what he was getting for his money.
The key things in businesses wherever they are based are the same things that the chief looks for.
The basic principles of trying to value the business, trying to find managements in which we have confidence, in both their ability and integrity, and then finding attractive purchase price, those principles apply wherever in the world we would be investing.
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