Berkshire Hathaway buys Occidental Petroleum shares worth about $588.7 million

(Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway has acquired nearly 10.5 million shares of Occidental Petroleum so far this week for about $588.7 million, according to a filing at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

The purchases bring Berkshire’s stake in Occidental to about 27%. The company also holds preferred shares and warrants to acquire another 83.8 million Occidental shares for $4.7 billion, or $56.62 apiece.

The shares and warrants were obtained as part of a deal that helped Occidental finance its 2019 purchase of Anadarko Petroleum. If exercised, the warrants would bring Berkshire’s total ownership to 33%.

Occidental closed at $57.22 on Wednesday.

Berkshire last bought Occidental shares on Oct. 25 and acquired a 25.8% stake worth approximately $14.4 billion.

Berkshire owns dozens of businesses including several energy operations, the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance, and hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks including Apple.

(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sonia Cheema)

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