Billionaire Bill Ackman Donates $1.3 Billion Of His Coupang Shares To Philanthropy

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman announced Monday that he had donated $1.3 billion in shares of Coupang, the South Korean e-commerce giant, to charitable entities.

In a tweet Ackman said “I was a very fortunate day one investor in @Coupang. As a result of its incredible success, 26.5 million shares of its stock will benefit humanity.” He went on to say that he was donating the shares — worth nearly $1.34 billion as of Monday’s closing price of just over $50 a share — to his Pershing Square Foundation, and to an unnamed donor-advised fund and a nonprofit. A representative for Ackman declined to comment. 

The Pershing Square Foundation describes itself as having committed more than $400 million to causes ranging from medicine to social justice. Forbes gave Ackman a philanthropy score of 4 on The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans last year, indicating that Ackman had given away between 10% and 19.9% of his wealth — measured by grants paid by his foundation, rather than donations to his foundation. 

Ackman, who founded and runs Pershing Square Capital Management, had invested personally in the Seoul company, CNBC reported last week. Coupang raised $4.55 billion in its IPO last week, making it the largest such offering in the U.S. this year, and the biggest by an Asian company since the Alibaba IPO in 2014. 

Forbes estimates Ackman’s current net worth at $3 billion. Bom Kim, the founder and CEO of Coupang, is worth $8.8 billion, according to Forbes estimates.

As of Monday at 4 p.m. ET, Coupang’s shares were up more than 4% on the New York Stock Exchange, $50.45 a share.