Warren Buffett says he's ready to invest in the UK

Warren Buffett is prepared to invest in Britain immediately if the right opportunity arises.

The billionaire investor told the Financial Times his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate was "ready to buy something in the UK tomorrow", regardless of whether the country leaves the EU or not.

“We welcome the chance to put money out any place where we think we understand and sort of trust the system,” Buffett said. He also said that while Berkshire would always understand the environment in the US better than anywhere else, it could come close in Britain.

Marking a big shift from his typically highly US-centric investment strategy, in his annual letter to shareholders, penned in late February, Buffett said that Berkshire hopes to “invest significant sums across borders", complaining that large deals are hard to do in the US because of competition from private equity.

Berkshire also faced other hurdles when investing in Europe such as its lack of recognition, he said, which was a handicap when large private businesses came up for sale.

And it had a spotty, even if limited, track record when it came to the performance of its investments in the UK. His stake in Tesco was a case in point, with Buffett having conceded that it was a “huge mistake” after the company’s shares collapsed following the investment.

Meanwhile, Kraft Heinz, in which Buffett is the biggest shareholder, failed in a bid to buy Unilever two years ago, although Berkshire’s ownership of Northern Powergrid was highly profitable.