Warren Buffett buys German apparel label

Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said on Friday it had agreed to buy German motorcycle apparel and accessories retailer Detlev Louis Motorrad-Vertriebs GmbH for a little more than 400 million euros.

Ute Louis, the widow of company’s founder Detlev Louis, had approached Berkshire about a possible transaction and sold the Hamburg-based company to a Berkshire unit, according to the law firm Beiten Burkhardt, which advised on the purchase.

However, the law firm warned that antitrust approval is required. Berkshire is likely to keep operating the company under its current name, according to Beiten.

As explained by the company, this deal will enable Buffett to expand in Europe despite its economic problems. The purchase was a “door opener,” for Buffett, as himself confessed in an interview with the ‘Financial Times’. “US is my first love, but I see terrific possibilities for us in Europe,” he added.

In a statement by Beiten Burkhardt, which worked together with Kuperferberg Transactions on the deal, the German retailer has yearly revenue of around 270 million euros and has a workforce larger than 1,500 employees in its German and Austrian operations.

This is Mr. Buffet’s first purchase of a medium-sized European company.