BRKA Berkshire Hathaway Inc (class A)

By Kimberly Chin 

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will donate his shares worth about $3.6 billion to five foundations, as part of his plan to give away most of his wealth to charities and other philanthropic efforts.

The company said Monday that Mr. Buffett, 88 years old, plans to convert 11,250 shares of his Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock into roughly 16.9 million shares of Class B stock. Around 16.8 million of the Class B shares will be donated to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.

Mr. Buffett has pledged to eventually donate about 85% of his stake in the Omaha conglomerate to these five foundations, with a bulk of it going primarily toward the Gates Foundation, which focuses on improving health care and reducing extreme poverty globally. This follows a series of contributions he made last year and the year prior to the group, with a value of about $6.6 billion.

The other four foundations are run by Mr. Buffett's children. His daughter Susan A. Buffett runs the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after her late mother, which supports educational programs and provides scholarships to residents of Nebraska who plan to attend a public college in the state. Ms. Buffett is also the chairwoman of the Sherwood Foundation, which funds Omaha public schools, local partnerships and early childhood education.

Howard Buffett's foundation funds programs that help poor and marginalized communities with food security, conflict mitigation and public safety, while the NoVo Foundation, run by Peter Buffett and his wife, Jennifer Buffett, focuses on improving the lives of girls, women and marginalized communities around the world.

In total, including the current gift, Warren Buffett has donated about 45% of his 2006 holdings to date to the five foundations. The gifts are collectively valued at around $34 billion, according to the company.

Mr. Buffett plans to give away all of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to philanthropy through annual gifts. The plan would be completed 10 years after his estate has settled, the company said.

Mr. Buffett is Berkshire's largest shareholder. As of June 30, he held 37.4% of the Class A shares in the company, according to FactSet.

Write to Kimberly Chin at kimberly.chin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 01, 2019 15:21 ET (19:21 GMT)

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