pacifiCorp
For the past several years, Berkshire Hathaway had been unsuccessful identifying attractive acquisition opportunities, In 2001 Buffett addressed the issue head-on in his annual letter to shareholder;
some year back ,a good $ 10 million ideas could do wonders for us(witness our investment in the Washington post in 1973 or GEICO in 19760 Today , the combination of ten such ideas and a triple in the value of each would increase the next worth of Berkshire by only 1/4 of 1 % we need "elephant" to make significant gains now-- and they are hard to find
BY 2004 ,Berkshire's fruitless search for "elephant" had begun to take its toll. In his annual letter that year, Buffett lamented his failure to make any multi billion -dollar acquisition, and the bemoaned Berkshire's large cash balance that had been accumulating since 2002. "WE don't enjoy sitting on $43 billion of cash equivalents that are earning paltry returns," Buffett said. " What charlie [Munger] and I would like is a little action now"
The announcement that Berkshire's wholly owned subsidiary, MidAmerican Energy Holding Company , would acquire PacifiCorp seemed to indicate that Buffutt had found an "elephant" PacifiCorp was a leading, low -cost energy producer and distributor that serve 1.6 million customers in six state in the western United State .Base in portland ,Oregon,PacifiCorp generated power through company -owned coal,hydro thermal renewable wind power. gas -fire combustion,and geothermal facilities . The company had merged with Scottish power in 1999 .EXHIBIT 7 presents PAcifiCorp's most recent financial statement.
The PacifiCorp announcement renewed general interest in Buffett's approach to acquisitions. EXHIBIT 8 give the formal statement of acquisition criteria contained in Berkshire Hathaway's 2004 annual Report , in general , the policy expressed a tightly disciplined strategy that refused to reward others for action that Berkshire Hathaway might just as easily take on its owned . Analysts scrutinized the PacifiCorp deal for indications of how it fit Berkshire's criteria. Several noted that the timing of Berkshire Hathaway's bid closely followed Duke Energy's bid to acquire Cinergy for $9 billion. The PacifiCorp deal was expected to close after the federal and state regulatory reviews were completed, sometime in the next 12 to 18 month .
EXHIBIT 9 provides company descriptions and key financial data for comparable firms in the regulated electric utility business. EXHIBIT 10 present a range of enterprise values and equity market values for PacifiCorp implied by the multiple of comparable firms.
Conclusion
Conventional thinking held that it would be difficult for warren Buffett to maintain his record of 24 % annual growth in shareholder wealth. Buffet acknowledge that "a fat wallet is the energy of superior investment result," He stated that it was the firm's goal to meet a 15 % annual growth rate in intrinsic value. Would the pacifiCorp acquisition serve the long-term goals of Berkshire Hathaway? Was the bid price appropriate ? Because PacifiCorp was privately held by Scottish Power,how bid Berkshire's offer measure up against the company's valuation implied by the multiples for comparable firms? What might account for the share price increase for Berkshire Hathaway at the announcement?