(Bloomberg)—After making a fortune in clothing, Amancio Ortega turned his attention to real estate.
The Spanish billionaire’s property holdings have soared to 15.2 billion euros ($17.2 billion), his firm revealed Tuesday for the first time, giving him the largest real estate portfolio among Europe’s super-rich.
Ortega, 84, the founder and owner of fashion label Zara, invested 2.1 billion euros in real estate last year through various subsidiaries of his holding company Pontegadea, according to an emailed statement. Pontegadea, which owns 59.3% of Zara parent Inditex SA, had a net income of 1.8 billion euros for 2019, including 1.64 billion euros in Inditex dividends and 621 million euros from real estate assets.
Ortega, Spain’s richest man, has diversified his fashion fortune to preserve his sizable wealth, investing more than $3 billion in U.S. real estate in recent years.
Acquisitions include landmark properties like Manhattan’s historic Haughwout Building and Miami’s tallest office tower. Last year, his investment firm completed a $72.5 million deal for a downtown Chicago hotel, which followed purchases of a building in Washington’s central business district and two Seattle office buildings.
As well as being landlord to tech giants such as Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc, Pontegadea also counts Inditex rivals Hennes & Mauritz AB and The Gap Inc as tenants.
The son of a railroad worker, Ortega has a net worth of $58.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the bulk of which comes from his majority stake in Inditex. His fortune has slumped more than a fifth this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced Inditex to close stores. The company’s shares have fallen 22% this year.
Aside from real estate, Ortega has also invested in energy and telecommunications, buying a 5% stake in Enagas last year. In 2018, Pontegadea bought a 9.99% stake in Telefonica SA’s tower unit for 378.8 million euros.
Pontegadea said it expects to receive 646 million euros in dividends from Inditex in 2020.
--With assistance from Ben Stupples.
To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Madrid at [email protected].
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rodrigo Orihuela at [email protected]
Steven Crabill, Pierre Paulden
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