NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Billionaire Warren Buffett meets today with business owners in Frankfurt as he looks outside the US for acquisitions to spur profit growth at his $200 billion Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The world's wealthiest person, starting a four-city European tour in Germany's financial capital, is seeking to form relationships that may lead to purchases by his Omaha, Nebraska-based investment and holding company.

"If you have a great business, it's best to not sell it," Buffett told reporters at the Berkshire annual meeting in Omaha earlier this month. "But when the time comes, whether for taxes or siblings, we want to be the first ones they think of."

Berkshire has $35 billion in cash and Buffett, 77, has been looking for places to put it. He's invested in China, Israel and the UK, complaining that there's a dearth of US investment opportunities for a company as large as Berkshire.

Buffett's trip includes meetings in Lausanne tomorrow and Madrid on May 21, finishing in Milan on May 22. The visit was arranged by Eitan Wertheimer, president of Israel's Iscar Metalworking Cos. — acquired by Berkshire in 2006 in Buffett's first non-US purchase — and Angelo Moratti of the family-run Italian energy company Saras SpA.

Buffett owns about a third of Berkshire, which he built over four decades from a failing maker of men's suit linings into a company with businesses that range from candy-making to insurance and a $72.6 billion stock portfolio.

He's known for buying well-run, privately held companies with high barriers to would-be rivals, cutting deals on a handshake and not meddling in management. In exchange, he typically pays less than companies could receive in an auction.

Germany is fertile ground for Buffett's investment style because about three-quarters of companies there are family-run. Many were founded as the nation rebuilt after World War II and are now grappling with succession issues as their founders age.

"Many families go through certain stages of strategic decision-making and they need to know their options," said Iscar's Wertheimer, 56, whose company was founded in 1951 by his father. "From Warren you get much more than money. You're part of something that's unique."

Expectations for a weak US currency add to the allure of earnings in other denominations. Since at least 2002, Buffett has made investments with the assumption the dollar will decline, first with direct bets against the currency, and then with the Iscar purchase. The euro fetched less than a dollar when Buffett first enlisted Moratti in 2001 to advise him on potential European purchases. It closed Friday at $1.5577.

"The US is going to continue to follow policies that make the dollar weaker," Buffett said at the annual meeting. Americans' preference for foreign goods causes the country to send about $2 billion in "IOUs" and assets abroad every day, pressuring the dollar, he said.

After paying $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar, which makes cutting tools for manufacturers in plants around the world, Buffett said he hoped the deal would raise Berkshire's international profile and help him find new candidates in "the bigger economies".

An investor who says he buys companies "for life", Buffett looks at businesses he understands and in which he can project performance during the next one or two decades. To familiarise himself with Europe's business culture and issues, Buffett has met Moratti, the Italian energy executive, in Omaha at least four times a year since 2001, Moratti said in an interview last month.

Buffett has a devoted following, particularly in the US. About 31,000 shareholders and groupies from every continent except Antarctica filled Omaha's Qwest arena to overflowing earlier this month to hear Buffett answer questions for hours on topics ranging from the economy to his businesses and philosophy of life and marriage.