Bill Gates, who spent about 850 million euros and doesn't drink much beer, bought 3.76 percent of Heineken Beer.

CTOnews.com, Feb. 23-Bill Gates has bought a 3.76% stake in Dutch beverage giant Heineken Holdings Ltd., although the billionaire has previously said he "doesn't drink much beer."

According to AFM documents, Bill Gates, the former richest man in the world and founder of Microsoft, bought about 10.8 million shares of Heineken Beer Holdings from FEMSA, a Mexican beverage retailer, on February 17, accounting for about 3.76 per cent of the company's total share capital. At Friday's share price, the stake is worth about 848.2 million euros (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 6.217 billion yuan), triggering disclosure requirements under Dutch stock market rules.

Gates bought the shares from Mexico's FEMSA, which is selling its stake in the beer company. In this transaction, 6.65 million shares were bought as individuals, while the rest were bought by the Gates and Melinda Foundation.

In a "Ask Me Anything" chat session on Reddit in 2018, Gates revealed that he "doesn't drink a lot of beer". "when I finish a baseball game and other occasions, I drink light beer to suit the atmosphere of all other beer drinkers. I'm sorry to disappoint real beer drinkers."