Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired the final 20% of Pilot Travel Centers on Tuesday.
Buffett’s company didn’t say how much it paid, but it shelled out $11 billion for the other 80%.
The truck-stop giant was the fifth-largest private company in America before Berkshire’s buyout.
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Warren Buffett’s elephant hunt shows no sign of ending, but at least he took down a gazelle this week.
The famed investor’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired the remaining 20% of Pilot Travel Centers from Cleveland Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam’s family on Tuesday. It originally paid $2.8 billion for 38.6% of the truck-stop operator in 2017, then shelled out another $8.2 billion to boost its stake to 80% last January.
Berkshire and Pilot haven’t revealed the price paid for the final 20% stake, which Buffett’s company valued at north of $3 billion last year. The two sides accused each other of manipulating Pilot’s financials to alter the valuation before reaching an undisclosed settlement earlier this month.
The Haslam family grew Pilot from a single gas station in 1958 into the fifth-largest private company in America with more than 750 locations across the US and Canada. Under the Pilot Flying J, Pilot Travel Centers, and Mr. Fuel brands, it provides services like gas pumps, fast-food restaurants, parking, laundry, and showers to truck drivers and other motorists. It sells about 14 billion gallons of fuel and $3 billion worth of food and merchandise a year.
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Pilot’s revenues jumped from about $20 billion in 2017 to $42 billion in the first nine months of last year, and the company now generates over $1 billion in annual pre-tax earnings. That’s not insignificant for Berkshire, which raked in $302 billion of total revenues and earned $31 billion in operating income in 2022, per its latest annual report.
It took Buffett more than six years and probably over $13 billion to take full ownership of Pilot. The business isn’t the behemoth he’s been looking to bring down with his
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Buys Final 20% of Pilot Truck-Stop Chain
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