Berkshire may exit a loss-making position in Kraft Heinz.How is the market reacting?

Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company now run by Warren Buffett's successor Greg Abel, may pull out of a decade-old investment in Kraft Heinz, an investment that failed to live up to the expectations of the legendary financial guru, now chairman of Berkshire's board of directors. The food giant's shares have fallen 66% over the past 10 years, making it one of the worst performing assets in the sector.

Kraft Heinz has filed a prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to "register the potential resale" of 325.4 million shares owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Their total value is $7.8 billion. The front page of the document states that Berkshire may "from time to time offer for sale" securities from this stake. It received a 27.5% stake in Kraft Heinz as part of the merger between Kraft and Heinz in 2015 (Berkshire owned about 50% of Heinz at the time), and has not changed the size of its position since then.

The warning about the likely sale of a stake in Kraft Heinz may reflect Berkshire Chairman Warren Buffett's dissatisfaction with plans to reorganize the business, writes Barron's. In September 2025, the food giant announced a split into two structures: the first would include the fast-growing assets of Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac & Cheese, while the second would include troubled brands like Lunchables, Oscar Mayer and Maxwell House. Buffett said at the time that while the Kraft and Heinz merger didn't work out as hoped, he "doesn't see much point" in separating them.

Shares of Kraft Heinz on January 20 ended the main trading session in New York with growth of 1%. But after the publication of an addendum to Berkshire's prospectus, quotations on the Nasdaq post-market collapsed by 3.8%. On January 21, in the over-the-counter trading in the U.S., the securities of the food giant traded down by 3.5%.

Kraft Heinz turned out to be a bad investment for Berkshire: the investment company spent about $9.8 billion to buy the stake, but it is now worth $2 billion less, Barron's states. In August 2025, Berkshire wrote down the value of its $3.76 billion investment in Kraft Heinz - in addition to the $3 billion written off in 2019. The problem for Berkshire now is that the threat of jettisoning all or part of the stake puts even more pressure on Kraft Heinz quotes, the publication notes.

Kraft Heinz has been struggling after years of cost-cutting and underinvestment as it tries to fend off competition from health food manufacturers and retailers' own brands. The company is now among the outsiders in the U.S. food sector, where sales have slowed as consumers have begun to save money after years of price increases, Reuters writes.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor