In other words, shares up from 224.1m to 228.0m; stake up from 25.3% of shares to 25.7%; total stake up from 31.8% to 32.1%


Actually, 25.8%, not 25.7%: 228,051,027 shares now owned by Berkshire, 884,681,888 OXY shares outstanding as of June 30, 228,051,027/884,681,888 = 25.77%; with the warrants, that would be 32.2%: (228,051,027+83,858,848.81)/(884,681,888 + 83,858,848.81)=0.32204...

Buffett has regulatory approval to purchase up to 50% of Occidental's shares. He has said he would not buy the company outright, but as far as I know, nothing stops him from going up to 49.99%; I don't know whether being at about 41% would prevent him from exercising the warrants and going over 50%, I would guess that it does, and if I am right, that would put a natural stop to these purchases at another 9% or so of the company (another $5b worth of shares, or about 12 times this week's purchases.)

dtb