Bill Gates, the fifth richest person in the world, reportedly bought a 3.76 percent stake in Heineken Holding NV on Friday. Heineken Holding NV is the parent company of the Heineken beer brand.
Gates reportedly bought 6.65 million shares of the company directly and another 4.18 million shares through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, as reported in a filing with the Netherlands’ Financial Markets Authority.
After Friday’s trading, Gates’s share was worth about €848 million ($899.4 million).
Mexican firm FEMSA sold all 18 million shares it owned to Gates.
Given that Gates admitted in a 2018 AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread that he is “not a big beer drinker,” this purchase comes as something of a surprise.
To fit in with the other beer drinkers at events like baseball games, Gates said in his AMA that he prefers to drink light beer. I apologize to all the beer purists out there.
The fact that he does not drink beer himself is not the only surprising aspect of this purchase.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported a study on the negative effects of alcohol on health last year. Stronger interventions are required, according to the study.
While still married to Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.
