BHE Shareholders' Equity (Notes)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

BHE Shareholders' Equity [Text Block]

BHE Shareholders' Equity

Common Stock

On March 14, 2000, and as amended on December 7, 2005, BHE's shareholders entered into a Shareholder Agreement that provides specific rights to certain shareholders. One of these rights allows certain shareholders the ability to put their common shares back to BHE at the then current fair value dependent on certain circumstances controlled by BHE.

On December 19, 2013, Berkshire Hathaway and other existing shareholders invested $1.0 billion, in the aggregate, in 2,857,143 shares of BHE's common stock in order to provide equity funding for the NV Energy Transaction (see Note 3). The per-share value assigned to the shares of common stock issued, which were effected pursuant to a private placement and were exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, was based on a per share value as agreed to by BHE's shareholders.

On February 17, 2015, BHE repurchased from certain family interests of Mr. Walter Scott, Jr. 75,000 shares of its common stock for $36 million.

Restricted Net Assets

BHE has maximum debt-to-total capitalization percentage restrictions imposed by its senior unsecured credit facilities expiring in June 2017 which, in certain circumstances, limit BHE's ability to make cash dividends or distributions. As a result of this restriction, BHE has restricted net assets of $12.7 billion as of December 31, 2015.

Certain of BHE's subsidiaries have restrictions on their ability to dividend, loan or advance funds to BHE due to specific legal or regulatory restrictions, including, but not limited to, maximum debt-to-total capitalization percentages and commitments made to state commissions or federal agencies in connection with past acquisitions. As a result of these restrictions, BHE's subsidiaries had restricted net assets of $17.2 billion as of December 31, 2015.