NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 16, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that the ratings on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK; AA+/Stable/A-1+) and its insurance subsidiaries are unaffected by BRK's announcement that it has agreed to acquire specialty chemical manufacturer Lubrizol Corp. in a cash transaction. The transaction, which is valued at $9.7 billion and includes approximately $0.7 billion of net debt, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011. Based on our understanding of the structure and financing of this acquisition, we believe that BRK will still meet our recently published expectations for 2011 following this transaction. Most significantly, we believe that insurance capital adequacy remains on track to improve to the 'AA' level by year-end
