China exports a new crop of Buffett disciples

Among the tens of thousands of wannabe Warren Buffetts who converged on Omaha last weekend to listen to the sage's utterances on his 50th anniversary at Berkshire Hathaway were thousands of Chinese investors, eager to learn the secrets of growing rich in the heartland of capitalism.

The delegation - double last year's size at 2,000-strong, according to Chinese media - ranged from Zhang Lei, founder of Beijing-based Hillhouse Capital, a $20bn fund established with help from the Yale endowment a decade ago, to a group of less prominent investors put together by Youhe Invest, named (aspirationally) the China Wealth Forum.

Mr Buffett and his sidekick Charlie Munger granted the Youhe Invest group a 25-minute audience on the sidelines of the annual meeting, according to two people involved. The group dined at Piccolo Pete's steakhouse and took a bus tour past the great man's residence, snapping photos of the house across the street, which is for sale for 10 Berkshire Hathaway shares (about $2.2m) - a bargain by Chinese standards.

The investors are emblematic of a wave of Chinese money pouring into the US and other international markets which has contributed to $330bn of capital outflows from China in the last four quarters, according to HSBC and CLSA estimates.

In the past, investment from China was dominated by state-owned enterprises seeking to acquire natural resources and natural resource companies beyond its borders. Now much of the flow comes from insurers, conglomerates and wealthy families, seeking either to diversify their holdings or get their wealth offshore before it attracts the attention of Beijing's anti-corruption campaign.

Much of the new investment is below the radar and focused on real estate, since - with the notable exception of Chinese insurer Anbang's $1.95bn purchase of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel last year - property transactions generally do not require government approval.

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Taking advantage of China's long May Day workers' holiday, the investment group put together by Youhe Invest's founder Connie Chen made a second stop at the Harvard Club in New York.

There, Luxembourg's consul-general Jean-Claude Knebeler pitched his country as "the best place for an international investment platform", experts from PwC offered tax advice and Chinese investors resident in the US shared their experience.

The advice included everything from how to take a long-term view of investing to how to get a green card. "Investment bankers may find transactions for you but they will charge!" warned Kimball Chen, chairman and CEO of Energy Transportation Group, an LNG shipping company with operations in the US and China.

"Rule of law is an important aspect of doing business here, but courts can take years," he said, adding "don't depend on relationships alone; do research because guanxi [relationships ] are not enough." The trip ended with an outing to see Phantom of the Opera.

It was not clear what insights the group would take home - other than that Mr Buffett and Mr Munger are addicted to peanut brittle and Coca-Cola.

"I got [Mr Buffett's] message about value and long term," said Danielle Accettola of WL Global, whose consultancy helps Chinese investors "build a life in America" by getting green cards in return for investing in construction and contributing to job growth in the US. "But most of the group just wanted to take photos with Mr Buffett."

She added: "Of course, if Berkshire shares go down, most likely the seller of the property across the street will ask for 15 Berkshire shares."

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