Bill Gates sent Melinda $2.3b in shares when couple announced divorce

After announcing they were ending their marriage of 27 years, it has been revealed that the Microsoft co-founder made a generous transfer.

Bill Gates’ investment firm transferred $US1.8 billion ($A2.3 billion) in stock to his wife, Melinda, the same day the couple announced their separation after 27 years of marriage.

Cascade Investment, a holding company that the Microsoft co-founder formed to manage much of his financial assets, transferred more than 14 million shares of Canadian National Railway to Melinda Gates on Monday, according to a securities filing.

On the same day, the firm transferred more than 2.9 million shares of AutoNation to Melinda Gates, a separate filing shows.

Based on Wednesday’s stock prices, the Canadian National Railway holdings are worth more than $US1.5 billion ($A1.9 billion) and the shares of AutoNation, a Florida-based company that sells cars, are valued at over $US300 million ($A387 million).

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Footage from Bill and Melinda Gates wedding. Melinda posted it on her Facebook account for their 25th wedding anniversary.

The transferred shares represent more than 3 per cent of all outstanding AutoNation stock, and about 2 per cent for that of The Canadian National Railway.

The transfers are among the first indications of how one of the world’s wealthiest couples will go about divvying up their assets as they separate.

The couple’s divorce petition, which was filed on Monday in King County Superior Court in Washington state, indicated that they don’t have a prenuptial agreement to distribute their estimated $US130 billion ($A168 million) in assets.

Instead, the two have signed a separation contract for dividing their property and possessions, but the terms of that agreement have not been publicly disclosed in court documents.

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Bill and Melinda Gates, with their three children. Picture: Facebook

Cascade Investment, which reportedly manages a whopping $US30 billion ($A39 billion) of Gates’ personal financial holdings, will be one of the key assets to watch.

Another important asset category at stake is the couple’s ownership of American farmland.

Gates owns nearly 110,000 hectares of land across more than a dozen states, according to a January investigation by The Land Report of the largely hidden investments.

Divorce proceedings could reveal more about Gates’ role as the biggest owner of farmland in the country.

This story was originally published on the New York Post and is republished here with permission