NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire

Hathaway ( BRK/A ) reduced its stake in BYD

to below 5%, in what could be the final time Berkshire discloses

stock sales in China's largest producer of electric vehicles.

Berkshire lowered its stake in BYD's issued H-shares to

4.94% from 5.06% on July 16, according to a Monday filing with

the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The stake had been 7.02% as

recently as June 11.

Hong Kong requires larger shareholders to disclose sales

when their resulting stakes fall below whole percentage numbers.

Disclosures can stop once ownership stakes fall below 5%.

Berkshire began investing in Shenzhen-based BYD in 2008 when

it paid $230 million for about 225 million shares, then equal to

a 10% stake.

It began selling BYD shares in August 2022, after the stock

price had risen more than 20-fold, and two months after it set a

record high.

Charlie Munger, Berkshire's late vice chairman, was the

impetus behind the original BYD investment. Berkshire invests

mainly in the United States.

BYD was founded by Chinese chemist Wang Chuanfu in 1995 as a

maker of rechargeable batteries.

It surpassed billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla last

year as the world's largest electric vehicle maker, though Tesla

has since regained the top spot. In the second quarter, BYD sold

426,039 electric vehicles while Tesla sold 443,956.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Emeia

Sithole-Matarise)