Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to buy Occidental’s chemical unit for US$9.7 billion

[NEW YORK] Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reached a deal to buy Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical business for about US$9.7 billion in cash.

The deal is the latest evidence that Buffett appears back on the hunt after years of refraining from large takeovers and progressively unwinding large holdings like his stake in Apple.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, Berkshire said on Thursday (Oct 2) in a statement.

Shares of Occidental rose 1.4 per cent in premarket trading in New York, while Berkshire’s Class B stock was down 0.3 per cent.

OxyChem is set to be Berkshire’s largest acquisition since it took over the insurer Alleghany in 2022 for US$13.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Buffett’s cash pile totalled US$344 billion at the end of June, close to a record.

Occidental, which is about 27 per cent owned by Berkshire, had already announced almost US$4 billion of asset sales since the start of last year as it works to pay down debt in the wake of its US$10.8 billion takeover of rival CrownRock.

The company said it expects to use US$6.5 billion of the proceeds from the OxyChem sale to reduce its principal debt to less than US$15 billion.

OxyChem makes basic chemicals including chlorine and sodium hydroxide. The proposed sale to Berkshire comes as oil producers are trying to boost efficiency to counter slowing output growth in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico – the biggest US shale basin – now that the best sites have already been drilled.

The deal marks the end of a long chapter for Occidental, which entered the chemicals business decades ago but has seen declining annual sales for that unit over the past few years.

In August, Occidental cut its full-year forecast for OxyChem’s pre-tax income about 15 per cent to a range of US$800 million to US$900 million due to a market oversupply of key products. BLOOMBERG