Berkshire Given FERC OK to Buy Half-Stake in Oxy; Shares Jump

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Friday was given federal approval to acquire “up to 50%” of Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s common shares.

In the filing to FERC initially in July, Berkshire noted that it already owns 18.72% of the outstanding shares of Oxy, as it is commonly known (No. EC22-87-000). The purchases would be completed in the secondary market.

As Oxy was working to snatch Anadarko Petroleum Corp. from Chevron Corp. in a takeover fight in 2019, CEO Vicki Hollub reportedly flew to Omaha to meet with Buffett, who agreed to invest up to $10 billion to help. The agreement handed the investment firm 100,000 shares of Oxy cumulative perpetual preferred stock, then valued at $100,000/share, and a warrant to purchase up to 80 million shares of common stock...