Chinese bidder to pick up Buffett's $2.1-M lunch tab
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 12:14:00 07/01/2008
WASHINGTON -- A wealthy Chinese investment manager has won a high-stakes online charity auction to have lunch with US billionaire Warren Buffett with a 2.1-million dollar bid, organizers said Monday.
Zhao Danyang, 36, will pay out the huge sum for the privilege of dining with Buffett, one of the world's richest men, at a Smith and Wollensky steakhouse restaurant in New York, a spokeswoman for the Glide Foundation, Denise Lamott, said.
"I believe he's a big fan," the spokeswoman said of Danyang, who runs the Hong Kong-based Pure Heart China Growth Investment Fund.
The firm's website says Danyang, a graduate of Xiamen University, joined the investment firm in 2002 and is currently its general manager.
Danyang saw off a host of other bidders in the online charity auction, which was conducted through eBay.
All bidders were pre-vetted to ensure they could meet their hefty financial pledges. The minimum bid required to participate in the auction, which ran June 22-27, was 25,000 dollars.
The proceeds from Danyang's winning bid will benefit the San Francisco-based Glide Foundation, which offers food and assistance to poor Americans.
Danyang's triumphant bid was more than three times last year's winning bid of $650,100, which was forked out by two financiers.
Under the auction's guidelines, Danyang can invite seven friends to join him at the lunch with Buffett.
Known as the "Oracle of Omaha" for his savvy investments, Buffett has amassed vast riches through running the Berkshire Hathaway holding firm.
Lamott said the Glide Foundation was delighted with the billionaire's continued support and Danyang's generous largesse.
The Glide Foundation serves 750,000 meals a year and offers medical assistance and job training opportunities to the homeless and other disadvantaged people in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.
"I have been moved with deep, heartfelt experiences. Warren Buffett’s expression of commitment and dedication go beyond amazing. It almost feels like a miracle," said Glide's Reverend Cecil Williams.
Buffett's personal wealth jumped to $62 billion in 2007 compared with $52 billion in the prior year, according to Forbes's annual billionaire list.
The investor announced in 2006 that he planned to give the majority of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Lamott said Glide's annual budget is around 12 million dollars, so Danyang's bid will go a long way toward supporting the charity's work in the coming year.
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