Gates Foundation unloads home builder shares

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates attends a debate at a French economic forum in Paris, February 1, 2007. Gates has shed most of his investments in home builders, as revealed in a quarterly filing of the holdings of his charitable foundation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) Chairman Bill Gates has shed most of his investments in home builders, as revealed in a quarterly filing of the holdings of his charitable foundation.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust showed a strong interest in the industry, according to a filing in November. It took stakes in at least seven home builders, only to quickly divest in those companies, according to a filing on Wednesday that disclosed the foundation's holdings as of December 31.

The overall value of the holdings dropped about 4 percent to $5.9 billion.

KB Home (KBH.N), Centex Corp. CTX.N, Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM.N), Lennar Corp. (LEN.N), Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH.N), Ryland Group Inc. (RYL.N), and WCI Communities Inc. WCI.N were dropped from the list of holdings.

A slew of U.S. home builders reported weak quarterly results last month, saying they did not see an inkling of a rebound in the U.S. housing market.

Gates, through his foundation, also stepped back from the energy industry, unloading his stakes in AES Corp. (AES.N), Chevron Corp. (CVX.N), Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED.N), Dominion Resources Inc. (D.N), Duke Energy Corp. (DUK.N) and FPL Group Inc. FPL.N.

The foundation also removed Ameren Corp. (AEE.N), Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAMa.TO), Scholastic Corp. (SCHL.O) and Univision Communications Inc. UVN.N from its portfolio's disclosed listings.

The Gates Foundation took on an interest in Respironics Inc. RESP.O, reporting a new stake of 500,000 shares in the maker of ventilators and respiratory drug-delivery systems.

It also added shares in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N), increasing its stake about 50 percent to 1 million shares from 670,000 shares.

The foundation increased its holdings in Caterpillar Inc. (CAT.N) to 1.32 million shares from 335,000 shares. It upped its holdings in DaimlerChrysler DCX.N DCXGn.DE to 1 million shares from 666,000 shares.

It reduced its shares in Great Plains Energy Inc. (GXP.N) to 775,084 shares from 1.8 million shares, and in IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI.O) to 50,000 shares from 670,000 shares.