February 9, 2010
Before it completes its deal to buy out the rest of BNSF Railway, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will divest its shares of Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway.
BNSF’s Matthew K. Rose, the chairman, president and CEO, made that statement in a conference call Nov. 9 with employees of his company, according to a transcript filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“He owns shares in both Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern,” Rose told a caller. “He will be disposing of both of those holdings between now and the transaction date.” That date is expected in the 2010 first quarter.
UP is the western-U.S. rival to BNSF, while NS has a major rail network in the eastern United States. An August SEC filing showed Berkshire with 9.5 million UP shares, and 1.9 million of NS.
Rose also reinforced earlier comments he had made about the good reception the Berkshire purchase of BNSF is receiving among U.S. policymakers.
“I’ve talked to 22 outside people today,” he said in the call, “from senators to congressmen to labor leader heads to regulators to DOT (Department of Transportation) people. I have to tell you there’s not a single conversation I’ve had that has been negative. There are a lot of questions and there are people we will need to sit down with and discuss this, but overall it has been very well received. The market obviously has bought in, as Warren says, and we’ll take this one step at a time.”
Click here to see the SEC filing.
Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.
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