Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Discloses Selling Some Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B); Plans To Sell 65 Mln More

According to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust have sold some of their shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B). The fund disposed a total of some 3.16 million shares, and currently holds 81.34 million shares. The securities have been disposed at a total value of $366.16 million.

Bill Gates

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is managed by Michael Larson. With billionaire Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda, as trustees, the Trust is engaged mainly in charitable activities. Aside from that, Mr. Gates holds another investment unit, Cascade Investments, which disclosed selling some 3.3 million class B shares of Berkshire last month. Currently, Cascade owns around  4,050 Class A Shares of Berkshire, which together with 300 Class A Shares owned directly by Mr. Gates can be converted into a total of additional 6.525 million Class B Shares.

The securities have been sold under the Rule 10b5-1(c) sales plan, which involves the Trust’s holdings in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B). The trust also, disclosed entering into a second sales plan, signed on January 13, and following it, the Trust plans to sell a total of 65.0 million Class B Shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) starting April 1, 2014 and ending June 30, 2017. The sales plan can be terminated by the Trust at any time, the filing also stated.

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B), Warren Buffett, is one of the trustees of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Earlier this year, Mr. Buffett gifted $2.0 billion for the asset trust endowment, raising the total amount of his donations to $13.01 billion, the total value of the endowment amounting to $40.2 billion.

In December, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation elected Susan Desmond-Hellmann as its new Chief Executive Officer. The new CEO will be installed in her role in May 2014.

Disclosure: none

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