AFP, Madrid :
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 euros in 2019 – and then re-invests 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 percent 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 $415 million (376 million euros) as well as the “Troy Block” complex in the same city which houses part of Amazon’s headquarters for $740 million.
It is “normal” for entrepreneurs with a lot of capital to set up an investment fund to manage the cash to “diversify and preserve” the fortune by building a “refuge” from stock market fluctuations, Juan Carlos Amaro, a professor of finance at the Esade business school in Barcelona, told AFP.
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 euros in 2019 – and then re-invests 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 percent 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 $415 million (376 million euros) as well as the “Troy Block” complex in the same city which houses part of Amazon’s headquarters for $740 million.
It is “normal” for entrepreneurs with a lot of capital to set up an investment fund to manage the cash to “diversify and preserve” the fortune by building a “refuge” from stock market fluctuations, Juan Carlos Amaro, a professor of finance at the Esade business school in Barcelona, told AFP.
