Bill Gates buys stake in Mexican company

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has acquired a 14.7 per cent stake in a Mexican company, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America.

The firm, Femsa, confirmed that the US billionaire had acquired a stake after reports in the Mexican press said he owned 29.9 percent of the company.

Femsa operates in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina and sells some two billion cases of beverages annually.