Zara founder Amancio Ortega. Credit: Imaxe Press, Shutterstock
Zara founder Amancio Ortega has gone on a global property shopping spree, snapping up more than $500 million (€460 million) in real estate to protect his fortune from Spain’s aggressive wealth tax laws, according to Bloomberg.
Ortega’s family office, Pontegadea, has purchased a five-star hotel in Paris, a residential block in Florida, and a commercial building on Barcelona’s Diagonal Avenue. He is reportedly also eyeing up an office tower in Miami for $275 million (€253 million).
The 89-year-old billionaire, who has a net worth of around $104 billion (€89.4 billion), remains Inditex’s largest shareholder with a 59 per cent stake and received his biggest-ever annual dividend payout – roughly €3.1 billion – in early May.
Why is Ortega spending money like it’s going out of fashion?
Spain is currently the only EU country with a full wealth tax on residents (it taxes the worldwide net wealth of individuals when it exceeds certain thresholds), and the clock starts ticking once Ortega receives his dividend. “For Pontegadea the choice is simple: redeploy every euro of that Zara dividend or watch eight-figure cash bleed away every year,” said Marc Debois, founder of FO-Next, a family office advisory firm, in comments published by Business Standard.
This isn’t about collecting shiny assets; it’s strategic liability management, and it’s turned Pontegadea into one of the world’s most active and powerful family investment offices.
Through Pontegadea, Ortega owns some of the world’s most iconic buildings. These include the Post Building in London, New York’s historic Haughwout Building, and the Southeast Financial Center in Miami.
He also holds commercial and residential property in major cities from Toronto to Seoul. Big-name tenants include Amazon, Facebook, H&M, and Zara itself.
Pontegadea’s net assets stood at €34.3 billion at the end of 2024 – a 10.6 per cent rise year-on-year, according to official filings cited by Bloomberg.
Ortega isn’t just buying buildings. Pontegadea has diversified into energy infrastructure and minority stakes in public companies. This is another tactic to manage Spain’s wealth tax.
Notable investments include a stake in Spain’s Enagas SA (gas transport) in 2019, a share in a Portuguese gas company, and a 20 per cent stake in Dutch parking firm Q-Park.
The firm is now reportedly in talks with KKR and others to acquire the Sabadell Financial Center in Miami.
Spain’s richest man
Born to a railroad worker, Ortega built Inditex (the parent company of Zara) from the ground up in 1963. He famously never had a personal office and stepped down as chairman in 2011.
His daughter Marta Ortega, 41, took over the fashion empire in 2022. Meanwhile, Sandra Ortega, his 56-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, holds her late mother’s shares and has a fortune of $12.4 billion (€10.7 billion), making her Spain’s richest woman, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
At least one-fifth of the world’s richest 500 individuals now use family offices to manage a combined $4 trillion (€3.44 trillion), according to Bloomberg. Ortega’s approach highlights how Europe’s richest can legally outmanoeuvre national tax regimes.
Should one of Europe’s richest men be able to legally shield billions while ordinary residents face a cost-of-living crisis? Or is Ortega simply playing the game smart?
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