The high bid in an online auction for lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett has reached $250,100, matching a record set in 2003.
The leading bidder is Mohnish Pabrai, managing partner of Pabrai Investment Funds in Lake Forest, California.
His bid, placed late Saturday, topped a $250,000 bid by last year’s winner, Singapore resident Jason Choo. The auction on eBay Inc. began Thursday and closes on June 30 at 10 p.m. ET.
Since 2000, Buffett has donated lunches to benefit the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco non-profit organization that offers programs for the poor, hungry and homeless.
Buffett, who runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is known for his folksy manner and long-term approach to investing in companies he considers undervalued.
“I’ve been a very passionate disciple of Warren Buffett for many years,” Pabrai said in an interview Sunday. “There is a very large tuition bill I owe him that I can never repay.”
Pabrai’s firm invests $231 million, and Pabrai has bid in previous years for lunch with Buffett.
The lunches began after Buffett’s wife Susan, who died last year, introduced him to the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. Until moving to eBay in 2003, the auctions were held in San Francisco.
As in previous years, Buffett will host the winner and up to seven friends for lunch in either Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett lives and works, or in New York.
In 2003, David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager at Greenlight Capital LLC, won lunch with a $250,100 bid.
Last year, Choo won with a $202,100 bid, and later increased his total donation to Glide to $250,000.
Pabrai said if he wins, he will take his wife and two daughters to the lunch, which would be in New York. He declined to say how much he might be prepared to raise his bid.
Pabrai also said he is “satisfied” with Buffett’s actions amid ongoing investigations into Berkshire’s General Re Corp. reinsurance unit.
In a Thursday interview on CNBC television, Buffett called Glide “one of the most remarkable charities in the country.”
Pabrai said “Glide is a very impressive organization. I’m very happy to support it in this manner.”
