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Bill Gates Buys Heineken Stake Worth $1 Billion

By  |  February 22, 2023

Despite previously saying he’s “not a big beer drinker,” Bill Gates bought a R16.4 billion stake in Dutch brewery Heineken.

The billionaire acquired a 3.76% stake in Heineken Holding NV, Heineken’s parent company, on February 17, according to a filing with the Netherlands’ Financial Markets Authority. He bought 6.65 million shares of the beer company directly, per the filing, and another 4.18 million shares through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

Related: South Africa OKs Heineken’s Distell Buy

On an “Ask Me Anything” thread on Reddit in 2018, Gates was asked what his favourite beer is.

“I am not a big beer drinker,” Gates wrote in response to the question, adding that if he goes to baseball games, for example, he’ll “drink light beer to get with the vibe of all the other beer drinkers.”

But the Microsoft cofounder has invested in a beer company before.

Long before his Reddit post and the health study, Gates bought a R7.1 billion stake in one of Mexico’s largest brewers, Femsa, in 2007. Femsa, which is the largest bottler of Coca Cola, sold its brewery to Heineken in 2010, and is now divesting from Heineken, the company said in a press release.