Warren Buffett Makes A Big Play In Texas Energy

The billionaire “Oracle of Omaha” has offered $9 billion in cash for Oncor, a Texas electricity company.

By Jill Ament & Michael MarksJuly 12, 2017 1:56 pm,

Last week, billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, who’s often called “the oracle of Omaha,” announced a $9 billion all cash offer to buy the Texas electricity company Oncor. Buffett’s statement on the deal said in part “When we invest in Texas, we invest big.” That’s not just big talk, either. Berkshire Hathaway seems to have a thing for Texas.

Steve Jordon, a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald, says that as big as the Oncor deal seems, it’s not an unusual one for Buffett. He has invested more than $30 billion in a single deal on other occasions.

Buffett’s Texas investments include a gas pipeline that starts in west Texas, and 29 auto dealerships in the state. He owns newspapers in Bryan-College Station and Waco, as well as a Dallas real estate firm.

“He’s very much an opportunistic investor,” Jordan says. “When there’s something that comes along that fits with what he wants, he’s willing to invest. Even in Texas, as they say up here.”

Buffett is known as a long-term player, Jordan says, and it’s likely that his Texas holdings with echo that pattern.

“He says his favorite time to own a company is forever,” Jordan says. “The electricity business sounds like something that’s pretty permanent.”

 

Written by Shelly Brisbin.