Buffett donates $1.25 bn Berkshire shares to Gates Foundation

Investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett [ Images ] has donated Berkshire Hathaway shares worth $1.25 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified financial insurance firm, is the flagship company of Buffett.

The company said in regulatory filling that Buffett donated 428,688 class B shares of Berkshire to the Trust worth $1.25 billion.

"On July 1, 2009, the Trust (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust) received 428,688 Class B Shares as a gift from Warren E Buffett.

The closing price per share of the Class B Shares on July 1, 2009 was $2,924," Berkshire Hathway said in the regulatory filing.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust beneficially owns 1,679,138 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares.

The Class B Stock is a special category of share usually retained by company founders at the time a company goes public and carries certain rights not granted to the stock available to the public.