Post separation, Melinda Gates now a billionaire on shares transfer from Bill Gates

The stock transfer to Melinda French Gates was done via Gates’ Cascade Investments, which Bill Gates uses as a holding company to manage his wealth, including Microsoft shares. (Image: Reuters/Mike Theiler)

Melinda French Gates is now a billionaire in her own right. Days after she and husband Bill Gates announced their divorce, the pair are “already divvying up their massive fortune”, Forbes reported.

The fortune was made in a “massive stock transfer” worth $1.8 billion on May 3 via Gates’ Cascade Investments as per SEC filings, the report said. The transfer comprised 14.1 million shares of the Canadian National Railway Company worth $1.5 billion and 2.94 million shares of AutoNation worth $309 million.

The transaction was first reported by Bloomberg News. The duo announced their separation on May 3.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

Gates uses Cascade Investments as a holding company to manage his wealth, including shares of tech giant Microsoft. Notably though, a majority of the Microsoft shares are given to the Gates Foundation and Gates personally now holds less than 1 percent.

Meanwhile, Gates’ net worth has slipped from $130.4 billion to an estimated $128.6 after the stock transfer, it added. He, however, still remains the fourth richest person in the world.

Gates did not respond to queries, the Forbes report said.

The stock transfer appears to be part of the couple’s divorce settlement, but it is yet unclear if a pre-nuptial agreement exists. The report said the divorce filing asked a judge in Washington to divide the assets based on an undisclosed “terms of separation contract”. This means Gates may have transferred assets other than those publicly-listed as well.

Terms of separation is typically signed when separated spouses are not yet divorced.