Berkshire Hathaway boosts Occidental Petroleum stake above 20%

Reuters

Published Aug 08, 2022 08:21PM ET

By Jonathan Stempel

August 8 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) Inc bought more shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY), surpassing the 20% stake where it could record some of the oil company's earnings with its own and potentially add billions of dollars of profit.

In a regulatory filing on Monday night, Berkshire said it paid about $391 million for nearly 6.7 million Occidental shares between Aug. 4 and Aug. 8.

The purchases gave Berkshire 188.4 million Occidental shares, or 20.2% of reported shares outstanding, worth $11.3 billion.

A 20% stake would let Berkshire report its proportionate share of Houston-based Occidental's earnings with operating results, through the so-called equity method of accounting.

Berkshire nonetheless could contend that its accounting for Occidental should remain unchanged because its stake is passive.

Analysts on average expect Occidental to generate $10.5 billion of profit this year, according to Refinitiv I/B/E/S.

Buffett's company also owns $10 billion of Occidental preferred stock, which helped finance the 2019 purchase of Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC), and has warrants to buy another 83.9 million common shares for $5 billion.

Some analysts have speculated that Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire could eventually bid for all of Occidental.

Buffett's assistant and Occidental did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside market hours.

Berkshire generated $16.3 billion of operating profit in this year's first half.

It uses the equity method of accounting for food company Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) Co, where it has a 26.6% stake, and truck stop operator Pilot Travel Centers, where its 38.6% stake is expected to grow to 80% next year.

In contrast, Berkshire accounts normally for its 20.2% stake in American Express Co (NYSE:AXP), restricting its ability to exercise significant influence.