Den aldrende amerikanske investor, Warren Buffett, vil skænke 85 procent af sin personlige formue til verdens fattigste mennesker, siger han i et interview med finanstidsskriftet Fortune ifølge flere nyhedskilder mandag.
Det anslås, at den 75-årige Warren Buffet er god for omkring 260 milliarder kroner, hvilket gør ham til verdens næstrigeste mand. Hovedparten af pengene skal gå til den fond, som milliardærkollegaen Bill Gates har oprettet for at fremme sundhed og uddannelse verden over.
Buffett, der har skabt sin formue på aktiehandel, vil donere omkring 9 milliarder kroner til fonden årligt. I et brev til Gates-fonden skriver Buffett, at han er i gang med at ændre sit testamente for at sikre, at pengestrømmen flyder videre efter hans død.
Samtidig indtræder Buffett i fondens bestyrelse. Selv forventer han dog ikke, at udøve den store indflydelse på fondens arbejde og betragter mest posten som en sikkerhedsforanstaltning. Uddelingen begynder her i juli.
Udvidet omtale fra The Push Journal:
Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85 per cent of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the worlds largest philanthropic organization, the 30 billion US dollar Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffetts (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).
The Gates Foundation, dedicated to improving health and education, especially in poor nations, is already the United States largest grant-making foundation, with current assets of almost 30 billion dollar. Mr. Buffetts huge contribution may permanently solidify that philanthropys standing as the biggest and most influential organization of its kind.
The immense size of the assets at the disposal of the Gates Foundation as a result of the partnership is apparent when compared with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, which had a budget of 610 million dollar for 2004-05. The Gates Foundation made 1,36 billion dollar in grant payments in 2005; at a minimum, Mr. Buffetts contribution may eventually allow the foundation to more than double that amount annually once he transfers all of his stock.
The Gateses credit Buffett, says Bill, with having “inspired” their thinking about giving money back to society. Their foundations activities, internationally famous, are focused on world health – fighting such diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis – and on improving U.S. libraries and high schools.
Bill Gates says he and his wife are “thrilled” by knowing that Buffetts money will allow the foundation to “both deepen and accelerate” its work. – The generosity and trust Warren has shown is incredible, Gates adds.
Beginning in July and continuing every year, Buffett will give a set, annually declining number of Berkshire B shares – starting with 602.500 in 2006 and then decreasing by 5 per cent per year – to the five foundations. The gifts to the Gates foundation will be made either by Buffett or through his estate as long as at least one of the pair – Bill, now 50, or Melinda, 41 – is active in it.
Berkshires price on the date of each gift will determine its dollar value. Were B shares, for example, to be 3.071 dollar in July – that was their close on June 23 – Buffetts 2006 gift to the foundation, 500.000 shares, would be worth about 1,5 billion dollar.
With so much new money to handle, the foundation will be given two years to resize its operations. But it will then be required by the terms of Buffetts gift to annually spend the dollar amount of his contributions as well as those it is already making from its existing assets.
At the moment, 1,5 billion dollar would roughly double the foundation’s yearly benefactions. But the 1,5 billion has little relevance to the value of Buffetts future gifts, since their amount will depend on the price of Berkshires stock when they are made. If the stock rises yearly, on average, by even a modest amount – say, 6 per cent – the gain will more than offset the annual 5 per cent decline in the number of shares given. Under those circumstances, the value of Buffetts contributions will rise.
Buffett himself thinks that will happen. Or to state that proposition more directly: He believes the price of Berkshire, and with it the dollar size of the contributions, will trend upward – perhaps over time increasing substantially.
The other foundation gifts that Buffett is making will also occur annually and start in July. At Berkshires current price, the combined 2006 total of these gifts will be 315 million dollar. The contributions will go to foundations headed by Buffetts three children, Susan, Howard, and Peter, and to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.
This last foundation was for 40 years known simply as the Buffett Foundation and was recently renamed in honor of Buffetts late wife, Susie, who died in 2004, at 72, after a stroke. Her will (testamente) bestows about 2,5 billion dollar on the foundation, to which her husbands gifts will be added. The foundation has mainly focused on reproductive health, family planning, and pro-choice causes, and on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
Counting the gifts to all five foundations, Buffett will gradually but sharply reduce his holdings of Berkshire (Charts) stock. He now owns close to 31 per cent of the company-worth nearly 44 billion dollar in late June – and that proportion will ultimately be cut to around 5 per cent.
Sticking to his long-term intentions, Buffett says the residual (tilbageværende) 5 per cent, worth about 6,8 billion dollar today, will in time go for philanthropy also, perhaps in his lifetime and, if not, at his death.
Omtale af Gates-Foundation fra The Push Journal:
Bill Gates: giving more money away, faster
WASHINGTON, June 25: The foundation run by Bill and Melinda Gates has a net worth of 29,1 billion dollar – putting it on a par with the gross domestic product of Luxembourg and ahead of many of the African nations it helps.
It says it has given out 10,5 billion dollar since it was set up and last year made grants of 1,36 billion dollar – making it a virtual health and education ministry in its own right.
Gates announced earlier this month that he will withdraw from running Microsoft over the next two years so he can spend more time on the foundation.
In naming the Gates as persons of the year for 2005 (along with U2 singer Bono), Time magazine praised the foundation for “giving more money away faster than anyone ever has”.
The current Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was set up in January 2000 from the merger of two earlier charities run by the family. It finances minority college scholarships, AIDS prevention, research against diseases that strike mainly in the Third World and other causes.
The Gates foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is so important that it now provides 90 percent of the world budget for the attempted eradication of polio.
It has committed 1,5 billion dollar to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which aims to help children in poor countries that cannot afford vaccines.
It says that it gives grants in all 50 US states and works in 100 countries around the world. “In 2005, about 70 percent of our grants went toward global efforts; the rest was dedicated to improving lives in the United States,” the foundation said.
Despite its economic size, the foundation prides itself on its lean and mean organisation. There are just 241 staff, headed by the tycoons father, William Gates, and Patty Stonesifer.
– We are optimistic because, while the statistics are daunting, we know these problems can be solved, Bill and Melinda Gates said in a statement on the foundation website – www.gatesfoundation.org
– Many of the answers already exist. But they require that public and private sectors step up their investments dramatically to reduce the inequities that divide our world. It is not enough simply to be aware of the problems; to make a difference, every one of us must take action, the couple noted.
