MEXICO CITY – Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates has acquired a 14.7 percent stake in Mexico’s FEMSA, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America.

FEMSA, which is based in the northern industrial city of Monterrey, confirmed that the U.S. billionaire had acquired a stake after reports in the Mexican press claimed he owned 29.9 percent of the company.

“It is important to make it clear that this percentage (29.9 percent) is only of the shares available to the investing public via the stock exchanges in Mexico City and New York,” the company said.

The Mexican company welcomed Gates’s investment, considering it an endorsement of its strategy, growth prospects and consistent results.

FEMSA operates in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina, selling some 2 billion cases of beverages annually. EFE