On the early morning of January 17th, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced that it had acquired the remaining 20% stake in Pilot from the Haslam family, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire. Previously, Berkshire acquired 80% of Pilot's shares for nearly $11 billion, resulting in a valuation of Pilot as high as $13.75 billion (approximately RMB 98.2 billion).

01 | Why does Buffett look at travel service business? According to Berkshire's annual report, Pilot is a travel service center in North America

Centers operator (whose main brands are Pilot or Flying)

J) It has over 650 travel centers in 44 states in the United States and 6 provinces in Canada. These travel service centers are usually located near interstate highways and can provide consumers and truck drivers with various services and convenience facilities such as refueling, retail goods, fast food, etc. Berkshire's annual report also revealed that Pilot sold over 13 billion gallons of fuel (mainly diesel and gasoline) in 2022, and its performance was also impressive, contributing $267 million in profits to Berkshire. Buffett's wholly-owned acquisition of Pilot has attracted market attention, and some analysts have pointed out that this acquisition may be Buffett's latest move in expanding into the energy sector. In addition to being a must-have in the North American market with stable cash flow and profitability, Pilot also has the expectation and imagination to transform into an electric vehicle charging station. This is consistent with the transformation trend of domestic gas station chain enterprises towards charging and swapping stations. The construction of charging stations and facilities in the current US market is lagging behind, with great potential for growth. Public data shows that the proportion of public vehicle piles in the United States from 2019 to 2021 was 16.6/14.6/15.9, respectively; The pile ratio of public buses in China from 2019 to 2021 was 7.4/6.1/6.8, respectively. To address this bottleneck issue, the United States has also introduced a charging station subsidy policy in the past two years. In November 2021, the US government issued the Two Party Infrastructure Act, which plans to provide $7.5 billion to establish a charging network consisting of 500000 charging stations on US highways and communities. It is expected that the market space for charging piles in the United States will reach 11.2 billion yuan by 2025, and the compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 90% between 2022 and 2025. For Pilot, this means enormous growth potential. Pilot is not only a travel service center, but also a comprehensive energy service station. Pilot's service center network throughout North America will become a network of electric vehicle charging systems in the future. It is worth mentioning that although Buffett's investment in oil stocks has attracted significant attention in recent years, in reality, Buffett has always been enthusiastic about investing in clean energy. He once stated that Berkshire has four main growth engines, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) is one of them. BHE is currently the fifth largest utility holding company in the United States, with eight business units: Pacific Power, China

Americas Energy, Nevada Energy, UK Northern Grid, Northern Gas, BHE

GT&S, Kern River natural gas, BHE renewable energy, etc., cover a variety of energy types such as wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, natural gas, etc. This time, with 100% control of Pilot Company and entry into electric vehicle charging stations, Berkshire's energy map may add new puzzles.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Japanese stock market has been soaring. On the morning of January 17th, the Nikkei 225 index surged by 1.7%, reaching 36000 points. However, the increase has since narrowed. As of the latest close, the index has risen by over 6% in 2024, becoming the focus of the global market. In 2023, the cumulative increase of Nikkei 225 reached 28.24%, ranking second in the world, only behind the US stock market NASDAQ. In the bull market of Japanese stocks, Buffett can be said to have made a lot of money. In an interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun in Tokyo, Buffett stressed that he is optimistic about Japanese stocks and will consider increasing his investment in Japanese stocks. He has increased his stake in the top five Japanese companies to 7.4% and stated that this is Berkshire Hathaway's largest investment outside of the United States. These five major companies are: Itochu Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui Corporation, and Sumitomo Corporation. Berkshire Hathaway's official website has released a statement stating that it has obtained funding through its wholly-owned subsidiary National

Independence

Company has increased its average shareholding in the top five Japanese companies to over 8.5%. Berkshire reiterated its previous position, intending to "hold its investments in Japan for the long term," but depending on the price, the maximum shareholding ratio will not exceed 9.9%. "No acquisition will be made thereafter unless specific approval is obtained from the invested party's board of directors."

03 | Berkshire's recent increase in holdings in Western Oil is also very evident. On January 11th, the latest disclosure by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that Berkshire's shareholding in Western Oil has increased to 34%. In December 2023, Berkshire continued to increase its holdings in Western Oil and bought over 15 million shares in a series of transactions, with a total cost of approximately $900 million. In December 2023, Western Oil announced the acquisition of US shale oil and gas company CrownRock for a total value of $12 billion. CrownRock is a Permian basin in the United States

Basin is the third largest non publicly listed oil producer, and its business complements that of Anadarko Oil Company, which was previously acquired by Western Oil. The Permian Basin is also one of the most profitable oil and gas fields in the United States. At the Berkshire shareholders' meeting in 2023, Buffett said, "We really like the resources, industry position, and technological level of Western oil companies in the Permian Basin. They have many high-quality oil wells and have done many beneficial things, which is a completely different oil industry." Currently, there is widespread speculation in the market that Berkshire's increase in holdings in Western oil will ultimately achieve its goal of controlling or even acquiring as a whole.