Warren Buffett to Sell Stakes In Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway plans to sell its stakes in Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern , now that it plans to buy their competitor, Burlington Northern.

In an SEC filing today (Monday), BNSF publishes the transcript of a conference call held by "certain officers" of the railroad for "certain BNSF employees" on November 3, the day Burlington and Berkshire announced their merger plans.

During that call, BNSF CEO Matt Rose is asked how many shares of Union Pacific are owned by Buffett and Berkshire.

Rose replies, "He owns shares in both Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. He will be disposing of both of those holdings between now and the transaction date."

There was no other discussion about the stakes during the call.

According to Berkshire's latest filing on its stock portfolio, as of June 30 it owned 9,558,000 shares of Union Pacific, currently worth about $594 million. That's a stake of 1.9 percent.

The same filing lists 1,933,000 shares of Norfolk Southern, with a current value of about $100 million. That's 0.5 percent of the company's shares outstanding.

Current Berkshire stock prices:

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