No. of Recommendations: 3
Just curious why you restrict your U.S. survey to private companies. Weren't the last three elephants -- BNSF, Lubrizol and Precision Castparts -- all public companies?
I didn't restrict it to only private US companies. I was just pointing out that there aren't many elephant size private companies to chase if you're trying to use up a big chunk of the cash and borrowing power.
That's why I moved on to the stock market and companies outside of the US.
And, really, BNSF, Lubrizol, and Precision Castparts aren't that big. Plus only BNSF has worked out well so far.
As for the BHE type companies, financing with their own loans is primarily used for regulatory reasons. I can see BRK being a loaner to BHE with carefully crafted terms. But I don't know the industry well enough to know how regulators would view that. My background is in O&G, not the electric power industry. I'm sure mid-stream companies at the right price would interest them. But who of them are big enough to chew up $100-150 billion?
Buffett and T&T have a real challenge in placing really big money. Especially with a shareholder base that doesn't want taxable dividends. I'm hoping some of you guys have better ideas than I do.
