Berkshire Hathaway Inc — a $354 billion industrial empire owned by the entrepreneur and businessman Warren Buffet (pictured) — is to buy Precision Castparts for $37.2 billion.

This is the largest deal in Berkshire Hathaway’s history, surpassing the $36 billion it spent on the Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad in 2010.

Precision Castparts — based in Portland, Oregon — supplies turbine air-foils and valves to aerospace companies such as Airbus and Boeing; it also makes products for the chemical-processing and oil and gas industries.

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of next March. Mr Buffet said: “I have admired Precision Castparts for a long time. When you get a chance to buy a great company, there is usually some reason why you are getting that chance, and perhaps the slump in oil and gas prices helped us.”

Precision Castparts recorded revenues of $10 billion in the year to the end of March, with net profits of $1.53 billion.