Berkshire buys stake in Pilot Flying J

OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought a stake in Pilot Travel Centers LLC, owner of the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain, and detailed plans to become the company’s biggest shareholder in six years.

Berkshire Hathaway agreed to acquire 38.6 percent of Pilot Flying J, a closely held company based in Knoxville, Tenn., according to a statement Tuesday. The Haslam family will continue for now to hold the majority of Pilot Flying J, with Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam remaining as chief executive officer of the company.

The Maggelet family’s FJ Management Inc. will keep its 11.3 percent stake in Pilot Flying J until 2023, when Buffett plans to become the company’s biggest shareholder. Buffett will increase his stake to 80 percent at that point, leaving the Haslams with a fifth of the business. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The investment in one of the biggest private U.S. companies marks a return to large dealmaking for Buffett, who’s had a relatively quiet 2017 after walking away from a $143 billion attempt to acquire Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever.

Haslam said in an interview that he hit it off with Buffett after being introduced earlier this year by Chicago merchant banker Byron Trott, who suggested the Berkshire chairman buy a minority stake in the truck-stop operator. Pilot Flying J generates annual revenue of more than $20 billion and was named the 15th largest private company in the U.S. by Forbes magazine.

— Bloomberg News