July 9 (Bloomberg) -- A lunch for eight with billionaire investor Warren Buffett sold for $202,100 in an auction benefiting a charity on EBay Inc.'s Web site.

A bidder with the user name jchoo9 who is registered in Singapore won the 10-day auction, beating two other contenders who entered multiple bids on EBay's site. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that aids the homeless and poor.

``Warren Buffett is a great light to people in need,'' said Reverend Cecil Williams, chief executive officer of Glide. ``We knew it would be big again this year, and we're delighted.''

The foundation will use the proceeds of the auction for programs supporting children, teenagers and mothers who are going through difficult times, Williams said.

The winning bid fell short of last year's $250,100 that Greenlight Capital founder David Einhorn paid for lunch with the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman. Buffett, 73, has auctioned off the lunch for the past five years. The winner will dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steak house in New York, which is contributing $10,000 to Glide to host the meal.

``I have a guru who doesn't even know I'm his student and I'm deeply obligated,'' said Mohnish Pabrai, a manager of an Irvine, California investment fund who dropped out of the bidding both this year and last. ``The lunch from my perspective is an offering to the master.''

The winning bidder from Singapore declined to identify himself in response to an e-mail message sent by Bloomberg News over the EBay Web site. ``I don't really want to do any interviews on this,'' the winner said in his reply. ``You may put I'm a businessman/investor in Singapore.''

Past Winners

Einhorn and his wife chatted and dined with Buffett at New York's Michael's restaurant in May. Einhorn, through a spokesman, declined to comment on specifics of the conversation, though he said the meal ``was a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Mr. Buffett and contribute to a great cause.''

Other past auction winners have said the same thing. ``I'm still thinking the lunch was worth it,'' said Peter Budlong, co- founder and president of Siren Systems Inc., who won the first year's bidding for a mere $25,000 when it was auctioned at a gala event in San Francisco.

He said Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway and the world's second- richest man, is more than one of the greatest investors.

``After having lunch with him, you also realize what a warm and extremely entertaining individual he is, with a perfect anecdote or one-liner for almost any topic being discussed,'' Budlong wrote in an e-mail.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Wiles in San Francisco grwiles@bloomberg.net and Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 9, 2004 03:13 EDT