Bill Gates has transferred stock valued at nearly $2.4 billion to Melinda Gates as the couple begins dividing their wealth after filing for divorce. Melinda Gates filed a petition for divorce in King County, Washington, in which she said that her marriage to Mr. Gates was irretrievably broken.
The stocks include shares in a Coca-Cola bottling company, a Canadian railroad, and a Mexican Broadcaster.
The couple, two of the world’s richest people, announced their divorce on Twitter on Monday. They had been married for 27 years. The transfers were made on the same day and revealed in securities filings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to these disclosures, Melinda Gates is now one of the largest shareholders in two Mexican companies, Coca-Cola Femsa SAB and the cable company and broadcaster Grupo Televisa SA. On Wednesday, her 4.9% stake in Coca-Cola Femsa was valued at $121 million and her 6.7% stake in Grupo Televisa was valued at around $386 million.
Also transferred were some of Mr. Gates’s holdings in the Canadian National Railway Company and AutoNation Inc. The latter is the biggest owner of U.S. car dealerships. Melinda Gates’s stake in the Canadian railway business is 1.9% of the business and is valued at $1.55 billion, her AutoNation stocks amount to a stakeholding of 3.7%, valued at about $307 million.
Mr. Gates’s investment firm, Cascade Investment LLC, revealed some of the transfers under regulations that require investors to disclose significant changes in holdings if they hold more than 5% of a company’s stock. Over the years, Cascade Investment has invested in dozens of companies on behalf of Bill Gates. It still lists ownership of 12.3% in Canadian Railways and 19.2% in AutoNation. It is no longer listed as an owner of Grupo Televisa or Coca-Cola Femsa.
A spokesman for Cascade Investment declined to comment further beyond the public disclosures and Ms. Gates also remained tight-lipped on the matter.
Cascade Investment still holds sizeable shares in other businesses including Waste Management Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Republic Services Inc.
According to Forbes magazine, these public investments are part of the couple’s $130 billion fortune. It is understood that the couple will be dividing their fortune according to an agreement that was struck before the divorce proceedings began.
Bill Gates had already sold off or donated most of his stake in the company he co-founded, Microsoft Corporation. As of Wednesday, his holding in the company that he had run for decades was 1.3%, valued at $25.4 billion.
Over the years, the couple has donated over $36 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, set up in part to help facilitate their pledge to give away most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. The foundation gives billions away annually as it tackles global issues such as poverty, disease, and climate change.
The couple has announced that despite their divorce they intend to continue to work together at their foundation.
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