For a price tage of $4.5 billion, Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will own a 60% share of Marmon Holdings Inc.
Marmon is a manufacturing and services group with more than 125 units whose products range from railroad tank cars to electrical wires and cables. It was acquired in 1953 by Jay and Robert Pritzer when it was a small manufacturing company based in Ohio.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.
Over the next five to six years, Berkshire will acquire the remaining 40% of Marmon at a price to be based on the group's future performance, the two sides said in a statement Dec. 25.
The Marmon group reported an overall revenue of seven billion dollars last year with operating income more than tripled between 2002 and 2007 and operating margins increasing from 4.9% to 12.4% during that same period.
Marmon employs about 21,000 people and operates more than 250 manufacturing, distribution and service facilities in North America, Britain, Europe and China.
