沃倫·巴菲特旗下的伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司表示，準備對一家印度企業投資至少2.85億美元。該公司運營本地流行的數字支付和線上金融服務公司Paytm。

印度孟買媒體《經濟時報》上月底報道了伯克希爾商談上述投資一事。報道指出，若伯克希爾斥資2.854億美元到3.567億美元，收購Paytm母公司One97 Communications3%至4%的股權，將是伯克希爾史上首次直接投資印度市場。

彭博社此后報道稱，伯克希爾已經同意收購One97 Communications的股權，正式聲明將在幾天內公布。

報道稱，按照伯克希爾的投資金額估算，Paytm的估值超過100億美元。阿里巴巴集團和日本軟銀集團均是Paytm的投資方。去年軟銀旗下的科技投資基金愿景基金曾對其投資10億美元，之后Paytm的估值達到70億美元。

Paytm的競爭對手方面，包括最近被沃爾瑪收購控股權的印度電商巨頭Flipkart旗下平臺PhonePe，還有谷歌的Tez。《經濟時報》稱，Paytm目前通過用戶支付時提供折扣大力開拓線下零售業務，也在進軍投資和保險領域。

伯克希爾歷來規避科技業投資，近幾年卻一改傳統，大手筆買入了蘋果公司的股票。然而，伯克希爾以前就投資過金融服務業，持有的股份包括華爾街巨頭高盛、富國銀行、美國銀行和全球信用卡巨頭美國運通。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is said to be preparing to invest at least $285 million in the Indian company that runs the popular digital payments and online financial services firm, Paytm.

The Mumbai-based Economic Times reported the talks Monday, noting that if Berkshire follows through by paying $285.4 million to $356.7 million for a 3-4% stake in One97 Communications, it would be Buffett’s first direct investment in India.

Bloomberg subsequently reported that Berkshire has agreed to buy the stake, and a formal announcement will follow in the next few days.

According to the publications, the investment will value Paytm at over $10 billion. Other backers include Alibaba and SoftBank—when the latter’s Vision Fund put $1 billion into Paytm last year, the company was valued at $7 billion.

Paytm’s rivals include PhonePe, owned by Flipkart—the Indian ecommerce giant in which Walmart recently bought a controlling stake—and Google’s Tez. According to The Economic Times, Paytm is currently pushing hard into offline retail through a discount scheme for customers who pay with the Paytm app, and is also delving into the investment and insurance sectors.

Berkshire Hathaway has traditionally shied away from technology investments, but changed tack a couple years back by buying into Apple big-time. However, the company certainly has a long track record of investing in financial services, with holdings including Goldman Sachs, American Express, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.