Sempra Energy bids $9.45 billion for Oncor, topping Warren Buffett’s offer
Sempra Energy is buying Texas power transmitter Oncor for $9.45 billion in cash, wresting it away from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Sempra said Monday that it will also pick up $9.35 billion of the company’s debt. To gain possession of Oncor, Sempra will acquire the reorganized Energy Future Holdings Corp. Energy Future entered bankruptcy in 2014, saddled with more than $40 billion in debt due to cratering energy prices.
Berkshire Hathaway said last month that it would buy Oncor for $9 billion, and last week it stuck to that bid. Hedge fund Elliott Management, which owns a significant portion of Oncor’s debt, opposed Berkshire’s takeover bid, saying it wasn’t enough. But Berkshire Hathaway stood firm on its offer, saying last week that it would not be increasing the bid.
Sempra expects to close the sale in the first half of next year. The deal still needs the approval of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Once the transaction is complete, Oncor Chief Executive Bob Shapard will become executive chairman of Oncor’s board. Allen Nye, currently Oncor’s general counsel, will succeed Shapard as Oncor CEO. Both will serve on Oncor’s board.
This is the fourth time that that an acquisition attempt has been made for Oncor. There was Berkshire Hathaway’s offer last month, and in April, Texas regulators rejected a proposed $18-billion sale of Oncor to NextEra Energy Inc. That price tag included debt. Regulators failed to accept that the NextEra transaction was in the public interest — a requirement for the deal.
A buyout attempt last year backed by the Ray Hunt family of Dallas also faltered.
If approved, the acquisition would be a massive one for Sempra Energy, which has a market value of about $30 billion. Among Sempra’s holdings is Southern California Gas.
Despite Energy Future’s problems, Oncor is considered a good investment by many, including Buffett. In 2016, Oncor posted $431 million of profit and earned similar returns in the three years prior.
San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Rob Nikolewski contributed to this report.
UPDATES:
7 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details about Sempra and Oncor.
This article was originally published at 5:55 a.m.
