{"id":1749,"date":"2025-10-02T12:11:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/warren-buffett-berkshire-occidental-oxychem\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T12:11:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:11:04","slug":"warren-buffett-berkshire-occidental-oxychem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/warren-buffett-berkshire-occidental-oxychem\/","title":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett Berkshire Occidental Oxychem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"RegularArticle-ArticleBody-5\" data-module=\"ArticleBody\" data-test=\"articleBody-2\" data-analytics=\"RegularArticle-articleBody-5-2\"><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\" style=\"top:0;left:0\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"InlineImage-imageEmbed\" id=\"ArticleBody-InlineImage-108140450\" data-test=\"InlineImage\">\n<div class=\"InlineImage-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<p>Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>CNBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>Warren Buffett&#8217;s Berkshire Hathaway announced Thursday it reached a deal to buy <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-1\">Occidental Petroleum&#8217;s<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"\/><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span> petrochemical unit, OxyChem, for $9.7 billion in cash.<\/p>\n<p>The deal marks Berkshire&#8217;s largest since 2022, when it paid $11.6 billion for insurer Alleghany. It also comes at a time in which the conglomerate is sitting on $344 billion in cash, near a record for the company.<\/p>\n<p>Shares of Occidental rose 1.4% in premarket trading Thursday following the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>Berkshire is already a major investor in Occidental, holding a 28.2% stake as of the end of June. Buffett \u2014 who is 95 and stepping down as CEO at the end of the year \u2014 has said he wouldn&#8217;t take complete control of the Houston-based\u00a0oil company.<\/p>\n<p>OxyChem manufactures water treatment, healthcare and other commercial chemicals. Occidental said it will use $6.5 billion of the proceeds to pay down debt.<\/p>\n<p>Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub said the debt reduction resulting from the deal will enable her company to restart buying back stock. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The problem has been getting our debt down faster, so this resolves the one outstanding issue that I think will now unlock our stock and allow shareholders to feel more comfortable, hopefully, to add to their positions and others to come in,&#8221; Hollub said on CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Squawk Box&#8221; Thursday. &#8220;So now we&#8217;re going to be able to start our our sharing purchase program again&#8230;.This is the last step that we needed in our major transformation that we started 10 years ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The last time Berkshire did a deal in the chemical space was in 2011, buying Lubrizol for a similar $10 billion figure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We look forward to welcoming OxyChem as an operating subsidiary within Berkshire,&#8221; said Greg Abel, Vice Chairman of Non-Insurance Operations at Berkshire, in a press release. <\/p>\n<p>Abel, who will replace Buffett as CEO of Berkshire in 2026, added that Hollub is showing her &#8220;commitment to Occidental&#8217;s long-term financial stability, as demonstrated by their plan to use proceeds to reinforce the company&#8217;s balance sheet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Both companies expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the transaction earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Buffett first got involved with Occidental in 2019 when he helped bankroll\u00a0Occidental&#8217;s purchase of Anadarko Petroleum\u00a0with a $10 billion commitment. He received preferred shares and warrants to buy common stock in return.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hollub said as Occidental grows its cash position, it will start redeeming Berkshire&#8217;s preferred stock in 2029. Occidental currently pays a 8% dividend on Berkshire&#8217;s preferreds. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025. CNBC Warren Buffett&#8217;s Berkshire Hathaway announced Thursday it reached a deal to buy Occidental Petroleum&#8217;s petrochemical unit, OxyChem, for $9.7 billion in cash. The deal marks Berkshire&#8217;s largest since 2022, when it paid $11.6 billion for insurer Alleghany. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1662,1659,1698,1699,1658],"class_list":["post-1749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-berkshire","tag-buffett","tag-occidental","tag-oxychem","tag-warren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}