Business news for Tue, 25 Dec 2007 & with words acquire+stake. 4 news.

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Berkshire Hathaway and Marmon Holdings announced Tuesday that Berkshire will purchase 60% of Marmon Holdings, a private company owned by trusts benefiting members of the Pritzker Family of Chicago. Berkshire will put up $4.5 bln for the stake and will acquire the remaining 40% through staged acquisitions over a five to six year period, to be based on future earnings. Marmon will make a substantial distribution of cash and assets to shareholders prior to the expected closing in the first quarter of 2008. The Marmon Group is an international association of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses.

CHINA'S air conditioner giant Midea Electric Appliances will acquire four companies from its parent Guangdong Midea Group to expand capacity and business. The company's shareholder board on Monday approved its proposal to pay 480 million yuan (US$65 million) for a 100-percent stake in Hefei Hualing Electrics Co Ltd, Guangzhou Hualing Air Conditioning & Equipment Co Ltd and a 95-percent stake in China Refrigeration Industry Co. It also plans to spend 31 million yuan to acquire a 30-percent stake in Chongqing Midea General Refrigeration Equipment Co from its parent company, the country's largest air conditioner maker told Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday. Hong Kong-listed Hualing Holdings Limited, which lost HK$372.02 million in 2.5 years through June 30, deals in selling household electrical appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators with its subsidiaries. "The acquisition won't benefit Midea a lot based on Hualing's assets. Midea may target Hualing's listed

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Ampal-American Israel Corp., the Tel Aviv investment firm, took an option to acquire a 35% interest in a project to produce ethanol from sugarcane from a company controlled by Ampal's chairman, president and chief executive officer. Separately, that company, Merhav, agreed to sell 25% to 35% of the project to Ecopetrol SA of Colombia. Terms of both deals weren't disclosed. Ampal said the move will add to its interests in clean energy and in the broader energy industry. As part of the option deal, Ampal has loaned Merhav $10 million to buy 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) in Colombia for growing sugarcane and to build the ethanol facility. And Ampal agreed to advance as much as $10 million more to fund the project, it said in a Tuesday statement. Yosef Maiman, who holds the top three posts at Ampal, is sole owner of Merhav. A panel made up of Ampal's independent directors approved the deal. Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin advised the board committeee, Ampal said.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- W&T Offshore Inc. agreed to acquire the interest it doesn't own in Ship Shoal 349 field, located offshore Louisiana and covering two federal lease blocks, for $116 million from Apache Corp. W&T and Apache, both Houston energy companies, expect to close the deal by April 30. W&T said in a Monday statement that it would finance the deal from cash on hand.