Berkshire Hathaway Unit Buys German Pipe Component Maker
January 23 2017 - 2:00PM
Dow Jones News
By Monica Houston-Waesch and William Wilkes
FRANKFURT -- A unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
has agreed to buy piping components maker Wilhelm Schulz GmbH, the
billionaire investor's second acquisition in Germany.
Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Precision Castparts Corp. will buy
the Krefeld-based company for an undisclosed price, Rainer Floeth,
general manager at Wilhelm Schulz, said on Monday.
The company had 2016 sales of 200 million euros ($214 million)
and employs roughly 320 people in Germany and 200 in the U.S., he
said.
"For both sides, (the deal is) a positive way to proceed in
global markets," Mr. Floeth said.
Berkshire Hathaway continues to scout out potential acquisitions
in Germany, said Zypora Kupferberg, an investment adviser who works
for Mr. Buffett's portfolio manager Ted Weschler to identify
targets in Europe's largest eco n o m y.
"They are looking for acquisitions to take as they are, for
'pearls' -- not companies requiring restructuring," she said of the
German market.
Berkshire Hathaway made its first German acquisition in 2015
when it bought Detlev Louis Motorradvertriebs, a retailer of
motorcycle apparel and accessories, for a little over EUR400
million.
A spokesman for Precision Castparts declined to comment on the
deal to buy Wilhelm Schulz.
Berkshire agreed in 2015 to buy Precision Castparts for about
$32.7 billion in cash, its largest acquisition. Based in Portland,
Oregon, the company makes metal components for industry with a
workforce of about 30,500 people.
Wilhelm Schulz's operations in Mississippi, Schulz Xtruded
Products, produce seamless stainless steel pipes and supply the
aviation industry with fuselage, engine and landing gear parts.
The transaction was first reported by Germany's Handelsblatt
newspaper.
Write to Monica Houston-Waesch at nikki.houston@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 23, 2017 13:45 ET (18:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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