Warren Buffett’s Investment Fund Acquires Stake in Teva

American investment fund Berkshire Hathaway Inc, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, announced on Wednesday data showing that it has acquired a stake in the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva, owner of the Croatian Pliva.

In a report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding stock portfolios as of the end of last year, Berkshire states that it owns approximately 18.9 million of Teva’s American Depositary Receipts (ADR) valued at around $358 million.

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According to Israeli media reports, this corresponds to a 1.8 percent stake in Teva.

Neither Teva nor Berkshire wished to comment on this information.

Last month, Berkshire reported that it plans to establish a partnership with Amazon.com Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co to create its own healthcare company.

Teva, on the other hand, reported last week that it concluded the fourth quarter of last year with a 32.6 percent lower earnings per share excluding one-time items, at 93 cents per share. Their revenues plummeted 16 percent to $5.5 billion.

Sales revenue from generic drugs fell by 16.2 percent to $3.1 billion. Revenue from the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone slid 19 percent to $821 million.

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“We have observed further deterioration in the U.S. generic drug market and in the economic environment, additional limitations on our ability to influence the pricing of generic drugs in the long term, and a decrease in the value of future drug launches,” the Israeli company stated in a press release.

CEO Kare Schulz emphasized that they are striving to stabilize the profitability of the global generic drug business, which he believes, along with restructuring and the launch of new specialty drugs, will enable the company to offset a larger portion of the decline in revenue from Copaxone sales and to record growth again.

They also face a debt exceeding $30 billion related to the acquisition of Allergan’s generic drug business.

In December, they announced plans to cut 14,000 jobs as part of a restructuring plan that also includes merging the generic and specialty drug businesses and closing numerous factories to reduce costs by $3 billion by the end of 2019, down from approximately $16.1 billion in 2017.

This year, they expect revenues in the range of $18.3 billion to $18.8 billion. Last year, they amounted to $22.4 billion.