WARREN BUFFETT BUYS REST OF BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY'S UTILITIES, BUT INVESTORS MUST GUESS AT THE PRICE

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is buying the rest of its utility unit from the estate of a longtime board member who died three years ago, but it’s not clear exactly how much it will pay for that 8% stake in the massive utility business.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it will pay Walter Scott’s family $2.4 billion cash and issue a number of Class B Berkshire shares that are equivalent to 1.6 million shares of the utility business, but since the utility’s shares aren’t publicly traded it is hard to estimate the total value of the deal that’s expected to close later this year. Altogether, Berkshire is buying more than 4.4 million shares in the utilities to give it 100% ownership.

“That filing left me with a number of questions, but they don’t have an investor relations function so I don’t expect those questions to be answered,” CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said. “The hope is that when they report earnings there will be more details.”