By Jonathan Stempel and Carolina Mandl

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – Warren Buffett stated on Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:) Inc will not be planning to amass Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:) however stays pleased with its massive funding within the oil firm.

Talking at Berkshire’s annual shareholder assembly, Buffett rejected hypothesis that Berkshire would purchase Occidental after having collected a 23.6% stake.

“We won’t be making any provide for Occidental,” Buffett stated. “We have now obtained the precise administration.”

Occidental didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Analysts and buyers have stated an acquisition might diversify Berkshire’s vitality portfolio, which incorporates a number of utilities, electrical energy distributors and renewable energy initiatives.

Berkshire began amassing shares of Houston-based Occidental in February 2022, round when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Buffett has additionally had an in depth relationship with Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub, who has been slashing debt and returning cash to shareholders for the reason that firm purchased Anadarko Petroleum Corp (NYSE:) in 2019.

“Hollub is a rare supervisor at Occidental,” Buffett stated. “We love having Vicki run it.”

Occidental and Chevron Corp (NYSE:), one other massive Berkshire holding, even have vital presences within the Permian Basin, an space in Texas and New Mexico that accounts for a big quantity of manufacturing.

Berkshire ended March proudly owning $21.6 billion of Chevron inventory, although it appeared to promote about $6 billion within the first quarter, Edward Jones & Co analyst Jim Shanahan estimated.

Till not too long ago, Berkshire additionally owned $10 billion of Occidental most popular inventory with an 8% dividend, which helped fund the Anadarko buy, plus warrants to purchase one other $5 billion of widespread shares at $59.62 every.

Berkshire stated on Saturday that Occidental redeemed about $474 million of the popular inventory at a premium, which it had a proper to do, lowering dividend payouts.

Final August, Berkshire received U.S. Federal Power Regulatory Fee permission to purchase as much as 50% of Occidental’s widespread inventory.

It wanted the authorization as a result of it might have had exceeded the Federal Power Regulatory Fee’s 25% possession restrict had it exercised the warrants.

Buffett, 92, has longed for one more massive acquisition for his Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate, whose dozens of companies embrace Geico automobile insurance coverage and the BNSF railroad.

Berkshire had a 22.6% stake in BNSF earlier than paying $26.5 billion for the rest in 2010.