Berkshire Hathaway buys full control of its energy unit

(Adds analyst comment, details about transaction, other Berkshire holdings)

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Berkshire Hathaway Energy repurchasing Scott family stake

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Berkshire stake in energy unit will rise to 100% from 92%

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Analysts expected buyout, price appears lower than forecast

By Jonathan Stempel

Oct 1 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway 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.

The Scott family will also swap 1.6 million of the energy unit's shares for an unspecified number of Berkshire Class B shares. Berkshire Hathaway Energy is also exchanging some debt.

Following the transaction, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire will own 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 had expected Berkshire to buy out Scott's family, though Edward Jones' analyst James 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 from homeowners 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.

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)