(Reuters) – Billionaire hedge fund investor William Ackman said on Monday that he had donated 26.5 million shares of South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc to three entities, including its foundation.
Ackman, who runs the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, said on Twitter that he also donated the shares to a donor fund program and another nonprofit organization that he did not identify.
The donation is valued at $ 1.36 billion, calculated based on the current price of Coupang’s shares, at $ 51.4.
Ackman, who took home about $ 1.4 billion last year after making a 70.2% return, has already supported a charity with scholarships and other causes through its foundation.
Coupang, backed by SoftBank Group Corp, was valued at around $ 109 billion in its market debut on Thursday, after raising about $ 4.6 billion in the largest initial public offering in the United States this year.
SoftBank also accumulated a gain of around US $ 33 billion in the paper with Coupang’s debut in the public market.
Founded in 2010 by Korean-American billionaire Bom Suk Kim, Coupang gained prominence after launching its guaranteed same-day or next-day delivery service in the East Asian country.
“I was lucky to be an investor on the first day of @Coupang. As a result of his incredible success, 26.5 million shares will benefit humanity, as I gave all shares to @PershingSqFdn, a DAF and another non-profit organization! , “Ackman tweeted.
The billionaire investor occasionally accesses Twitter, sending a message when he wants to get the message out to his 288,000 followers. But sometimes they are cryptic one-word responses, like “yes” or “done”, when he asks something about his plans.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst in Boston; Editing by Maju Samuel)