WSJ: Berkshire Hathaway Nears Deal To Acquire Precision Castparts

(RTTNews) - Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A, BRK-B) is nearing a deal to acquire Precision Castparts Corp. (PCP), the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the WSJ report, an acquisition of Precision Castparts could exceed $30 billion and also be Berkshire Hathaway's largest ever takeover. A deal could be announced as soon as Monday.

Portland, Oregon-based Precision Castparts makes metal components such as fasteners and turbine blades for aircraft companies like Airbus Group (EADSF.PK, EADSY.PK) and Boeing Co. (BA).

Berkshire Hathaway holds a 3 percent stake in Precision Castparts, making it one of the largest shareholders in the industrial company, which has a market capitalization of almost $27 billion.

According to the WSJ report, Berkshire Hathaway's planned deal for Precision Castparts shows that Buffett is betting on a boom in aerospace manufacturing that will be driven by airline companies.

In late July, Precision Castparts reported a 17 percent decline in profit for the first quarter from last year on lower sales, noting that demand for its products was weak among its oil and gas industry customers.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company with a number of operating subsidiaries like auto insurer Geico, reinsurer General Re, railroad BNSF, lubricant maker Lubrizol, energy utilities and a host of other manufacturing and retail companies.

Berkshire also holds significant minority stakes in top notch companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), American Express Co. (AXP), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Wells Fargo &Co. (WFC) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM).

PCP closed Friday's trading at $193.88, up $0.07 or 0.04 percent on a volume of 629,863 shares.

BRK.A closed Friday's trading at $215,462.77, down $187.23 or 0.09 percent.

BRK.B closed Friday's regular trading at $143.55, up $0.20 or 0.14 percent on a volume of 2.42 million shares. However, in after-hours, the stock declined $1.95 or 1.36 percent to $141.60.