BYD (BYDDY): Investment Thesis
The world’s largest EV maker at a fraction of Tesla’s multiple
Back in 2008, Charlie Munger met a Chinese chemist who had started a battery company in Shenzhen. He came back so impressed he told Buffett they had to own it and even compared the founder to Thomas Edison.
"This guy is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch—something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it."
So Berkshire bought in, paying $230 million for a stake that would eventually be worth something like $9 billion at its peak.
The company was BYD, and I’ve been watching it since 2018 or 2019. Always liked what I saw, but I never pulled the trigger. The valuation felt demanding at times, and I kept waiting for a cleaner entry point.
I had chances. Early 2020. The 2022 bear market. Both times I talked myself out of it. The valuation felt demanding, and I kept waiting for a cleaner entry. So I watched.
Now the stock is down about ~37% from those highs and trades at just under 20x forward earnings, roughly 6.5x EV/EBITDA. That's back to early 2020 levels before the run I missed.
