NEW YORK, Aug 26 — Warren Buffett will help finance Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s planned takeover of Tim Hortons Inc., backing a buyer that plans to move its headquarters to Canada where corporate taxes are lower, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. would invest in preferred shares and provide about a quarter of the financing, for a deal that will probably be valued at about US$10 billion (RM31.63 billion), the Journal said on its website, citing a person familiar with the matter. Burger King declined to comment while Buffett and a representative for Tim Hortons didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Burger King is controlled by Jorge Paulo Lemann’s 3G Capital which joined Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire last year in a US$23.3 billion takeover of HJ Heinz Co. Buffett bought half the ketchup maker’s common stock for about US$4.25 billion and invested US$8 billion for preferred shares that pay a 9 per cent annual dividend.
“We’re very likely to partner with them, perhaps on some things that are very large,” Buffett said in May at his company’s annual meeting in Omaha. “3G does a magnificent job of running businesses.” — Bloomberg
