Zara founder is now also a real estate magnate

Although Amancio Ortega mainly made his fortune through his textile empire Inditex, the 84-year-old Spaniard has also invested heavily in real estate in recent years. That real estate portfolio would now be worth 15.2 billion euros.

Multimillionaire

Bloomberg estimates Ortega’s assets at 58.5 billion dollars (51.8 billion euros). Most of that fortune comes from a majority stake in Inditex, parent company of Zara and Massimo Dutti among others.

This makes him by far the richest Spaniard, even though the corona crisis has cost the man several billions. The pandemic forced several chains of stores in the empire to close down and the company’s share price also fell by more than a fifth this year.

Diversification

However, this doesn’t seem to hurt the 84-year-old much, as figures from his holding company Pontegadea, which owns more than 59% of Inditex shares, now show that Ortega has been investing heavily in real estate for quite some time. In this way, he wants to spread the risks and be less dependent on the whims of the textile industry.

Last year Ortega invested 2.1 billion euros in real estate through various subsidiaries of Pontegadea. In recent years he also bought US real estate for 3 billion dollars (2.65 billion euros). Acquisitions include historic properties such as Haughwout Building in Manhattan and Miami’s tallest office tower. The holding company’s real estate empire is now worth some 15.2 billion euros. A peculiar detail is that Zara competitor H&M is also among the tenants.

Diversification is not limited to real estate. Over the past two years, Ortega has also taken minority interests in Enagas (energy) and Telefonica (telecommunications). Last year, Pontegadea posted a net profit of 1.8 billion euros.