Bill Gates becomes CN’s largest shareholder

MONTREAL: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has become CN’s largest shareholder, with a $3.2-billion stake in Canada’s largest rail company.

CN says the world’s second-wealthiest man owned or exercised control over 10.04 percent of its shares as of February 25. Gates has been buying up the railway’s stock since being identified as a shareholder in 2006.

He holds the 46.07 million shares through Cascade Investment and as co-trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, CN said in a proxy circular ahead of its annual meeting in Chicago on April 27.

The value of Gates’s shares is based on the April 25 trading price of $69.75, down 13 cents in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. CN’s market capitalization for its 458.6 million shares was $32 billion. CN releases its first-quarter financial results April 26. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect its adjusted earnings will increase to 88 cents per share on $2.1 billion in revenues.