HK$1.42b gift completes Mengniu founder's share bequests

Following in the footsteps of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett, Niu Gensheng, founder of China Mengniu Dairy, has donated all his remaining equity interests - worth about HK$1.42 billion - to charity.

The Hong Kong-listed dairy firm said yesterday that Niu had finished donating all his equity interests in Mengniu.

He will manage the donation through Hengxin, a charitable trust that he recently set up.

Niu was one of 50 Chinese business leaders and philanthropists who attended a meeting hosted by billionaire philanthropists Gates and Buffett in Beijing in September.

'Fulfilling my promise to donate my equity interests as part of giving back to society has been my wish over many years,' Niu said in a statement. 'As charity is a long-term community concern, I will continue to do my utmost to build a better society through participation in charitable activities.'

Niu held 3.96 per cent of the equity interests in China Mengniu Dairy and 2.63 per cent of its main operating subsidiary Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy as at June 30, according to the company's interim report.

The billionaire started giving away his fortune in 2005, when he donated most of his equity interests in Mengniu, one of China's biggest dairy groups, except for a small portion of dividends earmarked for his family. In July, he injected his shares in Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy into a charitable organisation he set up six years ago, the Lao Niu Foundation, a company spokesman said.