NEW YORK — US billionaire investor Warren Buffett is reportedly paying 4.5 billion dollars for a majority stake in Marmon Holdings Inc., an industrial conglomerate owned by one of America's richest families.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is acquiring 60 percent of the industrial firm from Chicago's Pritzker family, which has owned Marmon for more than 50 years, The Wall Street Journal reported online.
Marmon, whose businesses range from plumbing products to electrical wire and cable, boasts seven billion dollars in annual revenue and more than 125 operating units, the daily said. Its biggest unit is the railroad tank car maker Union Tank Car.
Berkshire will buy the rest of the company in stages by 2014, it said, adding that the final price tag will depend on Marmon's future performance.
It is Berkshire's biggest acquisition outside of the insurance industry, the Journal said.
The deal is part of a series of asset sales by the Pritzkers, who are restructuring their holdings to settle an internal family dispute over control, the daily reported.
Marmon chairman Tom Pritzker said Buffett's reputation for being a hands-off owner made him the ideal partner for the company.
"His philosophy is very consistent with our goals," Pritzker was quoted as saying.
Buffett told the Journal he plans to keep Marmon's chief executive, Frank Ptak, at the helm, and plans to add some "bolt-on acquisitions."
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