By Oliver Suess
January 28, 2010, 04:55 AM EST
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) — Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, said Warren Buffett owns the rights to shares that would bring his stake in the company to more than 5 percent.
Buffett held “financial instruments that granted him the right to subscribe to shares in our company which bear 1.945 percent of the voting rights” as of Jan. 19, the reinsurer said in an e-mailed statement today. Buffett also “held directly or indirectly 3.084 percent” of Munich Re’s voting rights and “therefore by way of aggregation he would have 5.029 percent of the voting rights,” the company said.
Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns the world’s third-biggest reinsurer, would become the German company’s largest shareholder if he were to subscribe to the shares. Asset manager BlackRock Inc. held 4.58 percent of Munich Re as of Dec. 1.
Stakeholders in German companies must declare purchases or sales that bring their investments above or below certain thresholds. Buffett’s stake exceeded the 3 percent threshold on Jan. 18, the Munich-based reinsurer said in a statement distributed by the DGAP newswire on Jan. 26. The exercise date of the financial instruments is March 11, Munich Re said today.
Munich Re spokeswoman Johanna Weber reiterated earlier comments, saying the company “welcomes any investor.”
The German reinsurer rose 1.35 euros, or 1.2 percent, to 111.20 euros in Frankfurt, bringing this week’s gain to 1.6 percent. That compares with a 0.9 percent advance in the 29-member Bloomberg Europe 500 Insurance Index this week.
–With assistance Mike Gavin in Frankfurt and Mariajose Vera in Munich. Editors: James Amott, Ben Vickers
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