A regulatory filing has disclosed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased further shares in Occidental Petroleum last week, increasing its position in the US oil company to 24.4%.
Berkshire Hathaway paid roughly $58 per share for 3,457,222 Oxy common shares this week, totaling $201 million.
Berkshire Hathaway now holds 217,330,133 common shares of Occidental, valued at approximately $12.7 billion, as a result of the recent transactions.
Despite owning more than 23% of Occidental Petroleum, Warren Buffett stated earlier this month that Berkshire Hathaway would not seek full control.
“We don’t know where the price of oil will be, but we like Occidental’s position in the Permian. There’s speculation about us buying to control. We are not going to control. We wouldn’t know what to do with it.”
Buffett said at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in early May
Berkshire Recognized As Oxy’s Major Shareholder
It can be recalled that three years ago, Berkshire Hathaway funded Oxy’s takeover of Anadarko with $10 billion in the form of equity. It was as part of this deal that the investment firm received the stock purchase warrants that could see it acquire 20% or more in Occidental.
To date, Berkshire is Oxy’s largest shareholder. Besides the purchase warrants, the company owns $10 billion worth of Oxy preferred stock, which carries an 8% dividend.
Oxy bought Anadarko for $55 billion in 2019, making it one of the biggest M&A deals in energy over the past few years. In that, it outbid Chevron, which had earlier announced a bid for the energy company.
“We will not be making any offer for control of Occidental, but we love the shares we have. We may or may not own more in the future but we certainly have warrants on what we got as part of the original deal on a very substantial amount of stock around $59 a share, and warrants last a long time, and I’m glad we have them.”
Warren Buffett
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