as·si·du·i·ty

In Aug-03 Berkshire Hathway paid US$12.50 per common share in a public tender offer for Clayton Homes’ ordinary shares. With 136.7m common shares outstanding this implies a valuation of US$1.7bn. Including US$429m assumed debt the total consideration amounted to US$2.13bn.This implied the following multiples: 177% of sales for 2002 (US$1.2bn, 0.7x tangible capital turn), 9.4x average pretax income over prior three years (US$182m, 15% margin).