Wal-Mart to Sell McLane for About $1.45 Billion to Berkshire Hathaway

al-Mart Stores Inc. said Friday it planned to sell subsidiary McLane Co. Inc., a wholesale distributor of groceries and nonfood items, to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The deal is worth about $1.45 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Temple, Texas-based McLane was acquired by Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer of food and merchandise, in 1990. It operated 2,650 tractors and 3,900 trailers in 2001.

McLane would continue to distribute merchandise to Wal-Mart stores and its Sam’s Club membership stores, Bloomberg reported. McLane had sales of $14.9 billion last year in addition to $7.2 billion in purchases from Wal-Mart stores.

Also Friday, McLane agreed to sell the company’s Merit Distribution Services unit to truckload carrier Swift Transportation Co., in a transaction worth $50 million, the companies said in a release. Proceeds from both transactions are estimated at $1.5 billion, Wal-Mart said. (Click here for the full story.)

In a joint statement, Wal-Mart and Berkshire did not specify the exact terms of the deal, but Wal-Mart said proceeds from both deals would total about $1.5 billion.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart was ranked No. 1 on the 2002 Transport Topics Private 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies.

(Click here for the full press release.)