Berkshire Hathaway buys full control of its energy unit
Adds analyst comment, details about transaction, other Berkshire holdings
Berkshire Hathaway Energy repurchasing Scott family stake
Berkshire stake in energy unit will rise to 100% from 92%
Analysts expected buyout, price appears lower than forecast
By Jonathan Stempel
Oct 1 (Reuters) -Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N will take full ownership of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, after Warren Buffett's conglomerate agreed to acquire the 8% it did not already own from the family of late billionaire philanthropist Walter Scott.
According to a Tuesday regulatory filing, Berkshire Hathaway Energy will pay $2.37 billion in cash for about 4.42 million of its shares.
TheScott family will also swap1.6 million of the energy unit's sharesfor an unspecified number of BerkshireClass B shares. BerkshireHathaway Energy is also exchanging some debt.
Following the transaction, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire willown 100% of the energy unit, up from 92% now.
The transaction is expected to be completed after regulatory approvals in the current quarter. Its total value is unclear because the energy unit's shares are not publicly traded.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy declined additional comment, while Berkshire did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scott, an Omaha native, was a longtime Berkshire director and Buffett friend who died in Sept. 2021 at age 90.
Analysts hadexpected Berkshire to buy out Scott's family, though Edward Jones' analystJames Shanahan said it took longer than expected.
In June 2022, Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who led Berkshire Hathaway Energy for a decade, sold his 1% stake to Berkshire for $870 million. That suggested that the Scott family's stake was worth nearly $7 billion at the time.
But the energy unit's PacifiCorp utility has since faced many lawsuits fromhomeowners and business owners who blame it for causing wildfires in Oregon and northern California in 2020.
The purchase also lets Berkshire spend some of its cash, which totaled $276.9 billion as of June 30.
"It makes sense," said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research. "Berkshire has a significant pile of cash to deploy, at a time U.S. Treasury yields are falling and likely to continue to fall."
She said the energy unit nonetheless "has had its fair amount of challenges since Abel sold his stake, not the least of which is the wildfire litigation."
Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns energy, utility and pipeline businesses, and one of the largest U.S. residential real estate brokerages.
Buffett's conglomerate originally bought a 76% stake in 2000, when the unit was known as MidAmerican Energy. The unit adopted the Berkshire Hathaway Energy name in 2014.
Berkshire also owns dozens of other businesses, including the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance, and common stocks including Apple AAPL.O.
Abel, 62, is expected to eventually succeed Buffett, 94, as Berkshire's chief executive.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
