Bill Gates bought the 3.76% stake that the Mexican company Femsa had in the Dutch beverage giant Heineken Holding, owner of the homonymous beer brand and the second largest beer group in the world.
Although the billionaire founder of Microsoft long ago made it public that he is not a “big beer drinker,” paid 883 million euros (US$939.87 million) -at current market prices- for the 18 million shares that Femsa had in the holding company, valued at 10.8 million euros each.
As revealed in a presentation by the Dutch regulator, the Authority for the Netherlands Financial Markets (AFM), the shares were transferred on February 17. According to your record, Gates bought 6.65 million shares individually and another 4.18 million through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, the foundation created by the billionaire and his ex-wife.
According to sources in the sector explained to the agency Reuters, the businessman acquired the stake in the beer group the same day that Femsa launched a sale of shares and bonds linked to shares for a value of 3.7 billion euros for his participation in Heineken.
The Mexican Coca-Cola bottler and the operator of Oxxo supermarkets had announced a few days ago its plans to sell its stake in Heinekenafter a strategic review that he carried out of his business.
As reported by the Mexican edition of the magazine ForbesFemsa seeks to divest from operations that are no longer part of its strategic focus. Among the companies from which it plans to leave in whole or in part, are also the logistics firm Solistica; the company dedicated to the supply of restaurants and catering Jetro Cash & Carry, and the platform dedicated to equipment, material handling and comprehensive services Alpunto.
While, in the market, the purchase by Bill Gates of the shares in Heineken surprised. In a chat session”Ask Me Anything”, where the businessman was preparing to answer “anything” in 2018 on the Reddit social network, Gates said he was not a “big beer drinker.”
“When I finish an activity or watch a baseball game, I drink light beer to keep up with other drinkers. Sorry to disappoint the true beer drinkers“, he replied when a user asked him what his favorite beer was.
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