Warren Buffett’s Berkshire buys Dominion Energy natural gas assets in $10 billion deal
It’s the first major purchase from Berkshire since the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent market collapse in March. Continue reading on CNBC
The conglomerate is spending $4 billion to buy the natural gas transmission and storage assets of Dominion Energy. Including the assumption of debt, the deal totals almost $10 billion. It’s the first major purchase from Berkshire since the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent market collapse in March.
At his annual shareholder meeting in May, Buffett revealed that Berkshire had built up a record $137 billion cash hoard as the financial market tanked, and that he hadn’t seen many opportunistic deals, despite the stock market’s deep swoon.
“We have not done anything because we don’t see anything that attractive to do,” Buffett said at the time, suggesting that the quick actions taken by the Federal Reserve this year meant companies could get more access to financing in the public markets than they could during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
For Dominion, the move is one of a series it is taking to transition to a pure-play regulated utility company that focuses on clean energy production from wind, solar and natural gas. Following the sale, Dominion expects that 90% of its future operating earnings will come from its utility companies that provide energy to more than 7 million customers in states like Virginia, North and South Carolina, Ohio and Utah.
