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 Business News | December 2007 
Bill Gates Buys Stake in Mexican Brewer Femsa
 Cyntia Barrera Diaz, Chris Aspin & Gabriela Lopez - Reuters
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Mexico City - Billionaire Bill Gates has taken a stake worth $392 million in Mexican drinks company Femsa, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.
Gates' Cascade Investment LLC fund owns 10.81 million of Femsa's (FMSAUBD.MX) (FMX.N) New York-traded American Depositary Shares, about 3 percent of Femsa, the world's second largest Coke bottler and Mexico's second-largest brewer.
Gates, who is chairman of Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), reported the stake in a passive filing with the SEC, which does not require the investor to report when the securities were acquired or the purpose behind the transactions.
Femsa's shares jumped 7.5 percent on Wall Street on Thursday and its local stock climbed 7.43 percent to 39.45 pesos.
Femsa, also known as Fomento Economico Mexicano, is based in the northern city of Monterrey and has a history going back to 1890, when its brewery helped spark Mexico's industrialization.
It has three divisions: its soft drinks unit, known as Coca-Cola Femsa (KOF.N) (KOFL.MX), its beer subsidiary, and also a retail operation, which runs Latin America's largest corner store chain, known as Oxxo.
According to the filing, each ADS represents 10 BD units, each consisting of one Series B share, two Series D-B shares and two Series D-L shares.
The filing showed that Gates owns a 1.2 percent stake in Femsa's Series B shares, a 5 percent stake in Series D-B shares, and a 5 percent stake in Series D-L shares.
(Reporting by in Mexico City and Gabriela Lopez in Monterrey; editing by Carol Bishopric) |
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