Overview

• Berkshire and Occidental have a long financial history, including Berkshire’s $10 billion financing of Occidental’s 2019 Anadarko acquisition and a roughly 28% equity stake reported as of June.
• Analysts called the terms favorable to Berkshire, pointing to a roughly 7% drop in Occidental’s shares after the deal was announced.
• The sale supports Occidental’s balance-sheet repair following its CrownRock purchase and is intended to accelerate deleveraging.
• OxyChem produces chemicals used in water treatment, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and Occidental projected the unit’s profits would fall to about $850 million this year.
• Observers estimated the price at about eight times OxyChem’s trailing 10-year average pre-tax earnings of roughly $1.2 billion, and Berkshire reported about $344 billion in cash at the end of June.