Berkshire Hathaway buys remaining 20% stake in Pilot Travel from Haslam family for undisclosed sum

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is buying the remaining 20% of the Pilot truck stop business it does not already own from the Haslam family, the two announced on Tuesday.

Berkshire confirmed it now owns all of Pilot Travel Centers. Financial terms were not disclosed. The sale follows the settlement of a lawsuit earlier this month that pitted Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam against Buffett’s Berkshire over the Pilot stake's value.

Berkshire purchased an initial 38.6% stake in PTC in 2017 for $2.76 billion. The two sides agreed at that time that Berkshire would take control of PTC by acquiring an additional 41.4% interest in January 2023. The price tag for that control purchase was roughly $8.2 billion.

The 2017 agreements also gave Pilot Corp. an annual 60-day opportunity, beginning Jan. 1 this year, to sell its remaining 20% interest in PTC to Berkshire. The sale price would be calculated using PTC’s earnings in the prior year.

With the first sale deadline approaching, however, the two sides accused each other of trying to manipulate the company’s financial records in order to affect the price Berkshire would have to pay for the Haslam family’s remaining 20% stake in the truck-stop chain.

PTC, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a diversified fuel company that operates hundreds of travel centers, primarily under the names Pilot or Flying J, in 43 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces. It was founded in Gate City, Virginia in 1958 by Jim Haslam II and in the ensuing decades acquired Speedway, Mr. Fuel and Speedway-Wilco among other chains.