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Billionaire Ackman donates millions of Coupang shares to foundation, others – Metro US

Billionaire Ackman donates millions of Coupang shares to foundation, others

Bill Ackman, chief executive officer and portfolio manager at Pershing
Bill Ackman, chief executive officer and portfolio manager at Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks during the SALT conference in Las Vegas

(Reuters) – Billionaire hedge fund investor William Ackman said on Monday he donated 26.5 million shares in newly public South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc to three entities, including his foundation.

Ackman, who runs hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, said on Twitter he also donated the shares to a donor-advised funds program and another non-profit he did not identify.

The donation is valued at $1.36 billion, calculated at Coupang’s current share price of $51.4.

Ackman, who took home an estimated $1.4 billion last year after having delivered a 70.2% return, has previously supported a scholarship charity and other causes through his foundation.

Coupang, backed by SoftBank Group Corp, was valued at around $109 billion in its market debut on Thursday after it raised around $4.6 billion in the biggest U.S. initial public offering this year.

SoftBank also racked up a roughly $33 billion gain on paper through the public market debut of Coupang.

Founded in 2010 by Korean-American billionaire Bom Suk Kim, Coupang rose to prominence after launching its guaranteed same-day or next-day delivery service in the East Asian country.

“I was a very fortunate day one investor in @Coupang. As a result of its incredible success, 26.5m shares of its stock will benefit humanity as I gave all of the shares to @PershingSqFdn, a DAF, and another non-profit!,” Ackman tweeted.

The billionaire investor has occasionally taken to Twitter, sending a message when he wants to get the word out to his 288,000 followers. But sometimes they are cryptic one-word answers like “yes” or “done” when he’s asked something about his plans.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst in Boston; Editing by Maju Samuel)