Buffett makes biggest play
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is moving to buy out aerospace supplier Precision Castparts, in a deal valued at a staggering $37.2 billion.
It would be the largest deal ever for Buffett, who lives by the mantra of ‘buy low, only invest in things that you understand and do so for the long run’.
A deal is being struck by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway firm, which says it will pay $235 per share in cash for all of Precision Castparts' shares.
The figure represents about a 20 per cent premium on the stock's recent closing prices.
“I’ve admired PCP’s operation for a long time,” Buffett said in a statement.
“For good reasons, it is the supplier of choice for the world’s aerospace industry, one of the largest sources of American exports.”
Precision Castparts will keeps its headquarters and branding, but it is unclear what the fates of its 29,350 employees at 157 manufacturing facilities will be.
Precision Castparts had $10 billion in revenue in its 2015 fiscal year with $1.5 billion in net income from continuing operations.
The company makes castings, forged components, aerostructures and fasteners for the aerospace market, pipe and fittings for the energy sector and many other industrial machine parts.
The stock has been hit by its deep ties with the slumping energy market lately, and are down 20 per cent for the year to last Friday.