Bill Gates Acquires More CN Railway Shares

Bill Gates has increased his ownership of Canadian National Railway shares to 12 per cent. Cascade Investment, the investment arm of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, announced today its purchase of 13,670 Canadian National Railway shares, which increases Gates' ownership of the company by 0.0003 per cent. 

Purchasing CN Railway stock since 2006, Bill Gates' recent small acquisition brings ownership through Cascade to approximately 10 per cent of CN Railway outstanding shares. Gates' recent investment totalled $1,245,200.05 with options to continue acquisition of shares in the future.

Gates' charitable foundation the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust also increased its investment in CN Railway and now owns 8,563,437 shares, a total of 1.98 per cent of CN Railway outstanding shares. This investment will be directed by Gates but will not provide any economic interest toward the co-trustee.  

As this investment was also purchased through Cascade, this combined acquisition allows Gates to have beneficial ownership and control of the direction of a total of 51,725,874 shares of CN Railway, a total of 11.98 per cent of the company.

In 2011, CN Railway announced Gates as its biggest shareholder. Gates' increase from 10 per cent into approximately 12 per cent ownership for investment purposes is due to continual acquisitions since 2011.