Speaking at the annual meeting of his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Warren Buffett said that he does not plan to take full control of oil giant Occidental Petroleum (OXY).
“There’s speculation about us buying control. We’re not going to buy control,” Buffett said in response to a question at the annual meeting. “We wouldn’t know what to do with it.”
To date, Berkshire Hathaway has acquired a 23.5% stake in Occidental Petroleum.
Last year, Berkshire received regulatory approval to purchase as much as a 50% stake.
Since then, Buffett has continued to buy shares in Occidental Petroleum, boosting his stake in the Houston-based energy company.
The continued stock purchases had raised speculation that the investor planned to acquire the entire company. However, Buffett has now thrown cold water on that idea.
“We will not be making any offer for control of Occidental, but we love the shares we have,” Buffett told a crowd of Berkshire stockholders.
Berkshire currently owns $10 billion U.S. of Occidental preferred stock and has warrants to buy another 83.9 million common shares for $5 billion U.S., or $59.62 U.S. each.
The warrants were obtained as part of Berkshire’s 2019 deal that helped finance Occidental Petroleum’s purchase of rival Anadarko.
Shares of Occidental Petroleum are down about 1% this year after more than doubling in 2022. The stock was the best-performing security in the S&P 500 index last year as oil prices rose.
Berkshire Hathaway’s stock has gained 4% in the last 12 months to trade at $323.88 U.S. a share.
