South Africa’s seventh richest man, Allan Gray, has decided to ring in 2016 by giving away his family’s entire controlling stake of the Allan Gray investment company and its offshore partner Orbis.

In a newsletter to clients dated December 31 Gray said that all dividends will be used for philanthropic purposes. Here’s Uncova with more:

This donation puts Gray in the company of U.S. philanthropists Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who five years ago started Giving Pledge, which encourages billionaires to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes..

Gray’s donation ends more than 40 years of family control of Allan Gray and will see current equity value — estimated at billions of rand — going to the newly formed Allan and Gill Gray Foundation for philanthropic endeavors [sic].

Gray is a notoriously private individual who founded the company in 1973, having overseen its growth to the point where it now manages around $40 billion in assets worldwide. Some more from that December 31 statement according to Bloomberg:

The foundation’s mandate “is to ensure that the fruits from its controlling interests in Orbis and Allan Gray are ultimately devoted entirely and exclusively to philanthropy in keeping with the family’s long-held intentions,” Gray said. “We consider this both the right thing to do and a small but necessary contribution toward a society full of hope for all humanity.”

Here’s hoping this starts something of a trend around these parts. Given the gross disparity between the rich and the poor efforts such as these are certainly a step in the right direction.

[sources:uncova&bloomberg]