Flush with cash, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE: BRK-A) next acquisition could be its biggest ever as the conglomerate looks to deploy some of it $49 billion war chest. That could mean things for some consumer staples exchange traded funds.
Last year, Berkshire partnered with Brazil’s 3G Capital to acquire ketchup giant Heinz for $23 billion and Buffett has not been shy about saying Berkshire would happily team with 3G again. That could mean another food acquisition with potential targets including General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Kellogg (NYSE: K) and Kraft Foods (NasdaqGS: KRFT), Tara Lachapelle and Will Robinson report for Bloomberg.
Berkshire’s biggest deal to date is its $34.5 billion purchase of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe four years ago. Buffett also has not shied away from saying he prefers to acquire prosaic, simple business “that have ‘good’ returns on equity with consistent earnings power, Bloomberg reported.
General Mills, Kellogg and Kraft can be considered easy-to-understand, predictable businesses. Berkshire owned a small stake in Kraft at the end of the fourth quarter.
Although the combined market value of those companies is almost $90 billion, none are dominant members of many of the most popular consumer staples ETFs. However, if Berkshire and 3G do move on one of those companies, there are a couple of ETFs that could benefit.
Just five ETFs feature General Mills among their top-10 holdings, according to S&P Capital IQ data, one of which is the PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage Portfolio (NYSEArca: PBJ). In fact, PBJ features weights of 5.24% and 5% to General Mills and Kraft, respectively. {The Buffett ETF Portfolio]