WSJ Report: Berkshire to buy Executive Jet
Thursday July 23 5:36 AM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Famed U.S. investor Warren Buffett's
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has agreed to acquire Executive Jet Inc.,
a fast-growing company that pioneered the idea of "time sharing"
for corporate jets, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Under an agreement expected to be announced Thursday, Berkshire
Hathaway, will pay $725 million in cash and stock for closely
held Executive Jet, according to the newspaper.
Executive Jet, based in Montvale, New Jersey introduced the idea
of fractional ownership of business jets in 1986, and the
popularity of its "NetJets" program has surged in this decade.
Buffett, in an interview from Berkshire headquarters in Omaha,
Nebraska, told the Wall Street Journal that Richard Santulli,
Executive Jet's 53-year-old chief executive officer and majority
owner, has "defied everybody's expectations" by building the once
financially strapped charter-aircraft concern "into a huge
success."
The company's profit figures were not disclosed, though Santulli
said Executive Jet's revenue has been growing an average of about
35 percent annually in recent years, the paper reported.
The NetJets format has made Executive Jet the largest single
customer for each of the nation's three leading business-jet
manufacturers: Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Raytheon Co., and
Textron Inc.'s Cessna Aircraft unit. In addition, a joint venture
between Executive Jet and Boeing Co. will be a significant
purchaser of Boeing's planned business jet.
Executive Jet, which is expected to generate revenue this year of
about $900 million, has $2.5 billion in general-aviation aircraft
on order, the newspaper reported. |
