Buffett lost €217m on Irish banks

ONE of the world’s richest men Warren Buffett says his investment of €244 million in shares at two Irish banks plunged to a value of €27m at the end of last year — an 89% loss.

Mr Buffett wrote in his annual letter to shareholders at his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm that when he decided to invest in the Irish banks last year the price appeared cheap to him.

“The tennis crowd would call my mistakes ‘unforced errors’,” he admitted.