A lunch date with billionaire investor Warren Buffett was sold to a Chinese hedge-fund manager on Friday for more than US$2.1 million.

The price, at an online auction, more than tripled last year's record of $650,100.

Zhao Danyang, who manages the Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund in Shenzhen, won the auction by bidding $2,110,100, said Denise Lamott, a spokeswoman for Glide Foundation.

Glide, a San Francisco charity, will receive all proceeds from the auction.

It was Buffett's ninth annual auction to benefit Glide, and the fourth consecutive time the winning bid set a record. Nine bidders placed 78 offers over five days last week, according to the EBay Inc auction site.

Lamott said a crowd of Glide employees, board members, donors and others gathered to watch the results at a San Francisco hotel, and were jubilant.

"There were screams, shouts - it was amazing in here," Lamott told Bloomberg News in a phone interview.

Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, will entertain Zhao and seven companions at a New York steakhouse and answer virtually any question except what he is buying and selling. He praised Glide, which provides services including job training, medical care and 750,000 meals a year to the poor.

(Shanghai Daily June 30, 2008)