Secrets to billionaire Zara founder’s US$11 billion property empire … steer clear of housing real estate
- Amancio Ortega currently owns property in nine countries: Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and the United States
- His portfolio is mostly made up of offices and shops, as well as some hotels
Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, the founder of clothing giant Zara, has built up a global real estate empire that includes offices used by Facebook and Amazon in Seattle and large swathes of London’s Oxford Street.
Diversifying his fashion fortune to preserve his sizeable wealth, the value of the real estate portfolio owned by Ortega’s investment holding Pontegadea Inversiones stood at around €10 billion euros ($11 billion) at the end of last year.
Pontegadea collects almost all of the dividends which Ortega earns – €1.6 billion in 2019 – and then reinvests the money in real estate, a spokesman for the holding firm said.
The 83-year-old stepped down as chairman of Inditex, the owner of Zara, in 2011 but he still owns 59 per cent of the world’s biggest fashion retailer, which also owns other popular fashion brands like Massimo Dutti and Bershka.
He is currently the world’s sixth richest person, according to Forbes.
His latest major real estate purchases came earlier this month when Pontegadea bought an office building used by Facebook in Seattle for US$415 million as well as the “Troy Block” complex in the same city which houses part of Amazon’s headquarters for US$740 million.
