The announcement that Berkshire’s wholly owned subsidiary, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, would acquire PacifiCorp seemed to indicate that Buffett had found an “elephant.” PacifiCorp was a leading, low-cost energy producer and distributor that served 1.6 million customers in six states in the western United States. Based in Portland, Oregon, PacifiCorp generated power through company-owned coal, hydrothermal, renewable wind power, gas-fired combustion, and geothermal facilities. The company had merged with Scottish Power in 1999. Exhibit 7 presents PacifiCorp’s most recent financial statements.
The PacifiCorp announcement renewed general interest in Buffett’s approach to acquisitions. Exhibit 8 gives 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 actions that Berkshire Hathaway might just as easily take on its own. 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 months.
Exhibit 9 provides company descriptions and key financial data for comparable firms in the regulated electric utility business. Exhibit 10 presents a range of enterprise values and equity market values for PacifiCorp implied by the multiples 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. Buffett acknowledged that “a fat wallet is the enemy of superior investment results.” 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 did 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?