Inditex made Amancio Ortega a billionaire. Now he is also the richest real estate tycoon in the world

Amancio Ortega built the largest fashion group on the planet from scratch, became the largest fortune in Spain and the twelfth in the world. Now, he has just added a new record to his career: it is the largest real estate owner in the world thanks to Pontegadea’s investments. According to the calculations of Forbes, After analyzing corporate documents, property records and data from the Regrid and Real Capital Analytics platforms in nine countries, the real estate assets of Amancio Ortega It would be valued at 25 billion dollars, about 21.2 billion euros at the current exchange rate, spread across more than 200 properties in 13 countries. This figure exceeds that of the Australian promoter Harry Triguboff, with 23.2 billion dollars in assets and that of the American Donald Bren, with 19.2 billion, until now the great references in the sector. From hanger to brick. However, what is most surprising about this second empire that has been created is that Inditex and Pontegadea could not be more different, although both have a key point in common: the Inditex dividends. The original wine of Pontegadea emerged in 2001, when Inditex debuted on the stock market. Ortega then sold a 13.5% stake in the textile company for $1.1 billion and with that capital founded Pontegadea, his investment vehicle. From that moment, Amancio Ortega stopped being the beneficiary of the dividends generated by the textile giant and placed Pontegadea and Partler as his representatives and beneficiaries of its millionaire dividends. In 2026, the family office de Ortega will collect 3,234 million euros in dividends for Inditex’s results in 2025, a personal record figure. A portfolio of Premium buildings around the world. Pontegadea’s strategy is simple to explain, but almost impossible to replicate: buy the best buildings of the market, in strategic and irreplaceable locations in the main cities of the world, and find solvent tenants to sign long-term rentals with them, obtaining income from day one. His properties include iconic buildings such as the 43-story Picasso Tower in Madrid (which he bought for $540 million in 2011), the Devonshire House across from Green Park in London for which he paid $671 million in 2013, Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, and in Canadaor the Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto, which is undoubtedly its crown jewel. In 2025 alone, Ortega closed 13 purchase operations in 10 cities in eight different countries, spending more than 3 billion dollars. Among its tenants we find names like Inditex itself, which rent the premises from its best stores, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nike, Spotify, FedEx, Home Depot and Walmart, and even its biggest rival in textiles: Primark. Pontegadea has also diversified into logisticsluxury housing for rent and port infrastructure either energy networks. No debt, no rush and very few sellers. What differentiates Pontegadea from the rest of the large real estate investors is that Ortega’s investor seems to have unlimited funds, thanks to the billion-dollar dividends it receives each year from Inditex, and that it annually invests entirely in brick without incurring debt with its operations. A real estate agent who has worked with the firm told Forbes: “They buy collectible assets that are the best on the market. They are more like a art collector that looks for the most exclusive works of art.” Of their entire portfolio, according to the Real Capital Analytics database consulted by the American magazine, they have only sold 10 buildings in more than two decades. This also differentiates them from the rest of the real estate companies, which tend to get rid of their buildings after four or five years. More investment, less taxes. Behind the expansion of Pontegadea and its recent European structuring based in Luxembourg, There is also a very fine-tuned fiscal logic. In Spain, the wealth tax, to which the solidarity tax aimed at large fortunes was added in 2022, penalizes uninvested cash. Therefore, Ortega’s strategy is to keep 100% of the dividends he receives from Inditex invested in productive assets to increase their value and reduce the tax bill. According to Forbes, Ortega has saved about $800 million in wealth taxes since 2001 thanks to this constant reinvestment in real estate, infrastructure and energy with Pontegadea. Furthermore, by channeling the collection of Inditex dividends through Pontegadea and Partler, Ortega benefits from a tax exemption designed for business holdings. paying taxes at 1.25% instead of doing it for the 28% that applies to personal income tax. On the whole, Forbes It estimates that this mechanism has allowed it to save about $7 billion in taxes on these dividends in the last 25 years. In Xataka | Spain has more and more “billionaires” and a big shot who leaves their fortunes as anecdotes: Amancio Ortega Image | GTRES, Unsplash (Sergio Kian)

It is the springboard to becoming the first billionaire in history

The Delaware Supreme Court has taken a historic turn in a legal battle that has lasted for years: it has definitively approved Elon Musk’s compensation package that was approved in 2018, originally valued at $56 billion. This decision puts an end to the judicial dispute that led to the fiscal change of Tesla from Delaware to Texas. The unanimous ruling of the five judges of Delaware’s highest court considers that canceling the salary package left Musk without any compensation between 2018 and 2024 for his work as CEO of Tesla since You are not assigned a fixed salary in the company. Adjusted for Tesla’s current stock price, which hit all-time highs this week, the value of the stock package you will receive amounts to about $139 billion. The origin of the judicial conflict. The entire judicial mess over Musk’s salary bonus began in January 2024, when Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery annulled the CEO’s compensation package after a complaint from a group of shareholders, arguing that the billion-dollar remuneration was excessive and unfair to shareholders. McCormick determined that Tesla’s board of directors had not properly informed shareholders about the bonus and that board members lacked sufficient independence from Musk. This first unfavorable ruling caused an immediate reaction and forceful from the CEO of Tesla. Tesla’s board of directors organized a second vote among shareholders in June 2024 to reaffirm its CEO’s bonus, which was approved with 63% of the votes, although McCormick rejected again this maneuver in December 2024. The Supreme Court endorses it. The Delaware Supreme Court determined that McCormick’s decision contained several errors and that complete termination of the salary package was an inappropriate penalty. The judges unanimously concluded that voiding the payment had left Musk without any financial compensation for his time and effort during a six-year period as CEO. Although the high court reinstated compensation to the CEO, it has also imposed on Musk the symbolic payment of an additional dollar and ordered him to pay legal fees, recognizing certain problematic aspects of the original process. The decision marks the closing of a legal battle that has lasted almost two years and that has kept one of the most ambitious executive compensation packages in US business history on hold…at least until the arrival of Musk’s new salary bonus, estimated at a billion dollars. The conditions met by Musk. The compensation package approved in 2018 consisted of stock options equivalent to approximately 303 million Tesla shares, which represented about 12% of the company’s total equity at the time. The bonus was structured into 12 tranches of stock options that would only be unlocked if Tesla reached a series of milestones in market capitalization, revenue and profits over the next 10 years. At the time of the plan in 2018, Tesla had a market valuation of approximately $59 billion and was facing serious production and cash flow problems. Musk managed to exceed all established objectives in just five of the ten years planned. In June 2024, when shareholders voted a second time to reaffirm the package, the value of the 303 million stock options to which Musk was entitled had already reached $48.2 billion, with a price of $182. However, in December 2025, with Tesla trading near $481 and a market capitalization around $1.6 trillion, the value of the restored package skyrockets to approximately $139 billion. A historic boost to Musk’s fortune. With the restoration of this salary bonus, Elon Musk’s personal fortune has skyrocketed to over $749 billion, establishing him not only as the richest man in the world, but as the first person in modern history to get this close to $1 trillion. This figure represents almost triple the fortune of the second richest person on the planet: the Google co-founder Larry Page, whose assets are estimated at 252,000 million dollars. Musk is the millionaire best positioned to become the first billionaire in history in the short term, especially if SpaceX goes public in 2026 and the projected valuation of $1.5 trillion is reached. Musk’s stake in SpaceX could exceed an additional $625 billion, which, added to his other investments, could bring his total assets closer to $952 billion. In Xataka | “Work will be optional”: Elon Musk has gone from being a fervent supporter of 996 to believing in universal basic income Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore), Unsplash (Andreas Rasmussen)

Federer has just become a billionaire. And not for his 20 Grand Slams, but for some shoes that his wife bought

With unique elegance, Roger Federer He raised tennis to an art form. Throughout a professional career that extended for 24 years, he conquered 20 Grand Slam titlesbecoming one of the most laureate and admired tennis players of all time. Number one in the world for 310 weeks, its fluid style and its consistency in the elite redefined the standards of excellence in sport. However, that economic booty that kneaded During his career he did not enter the most select club of the great fortunes of sport. Multimillionaire. Yes, because Federer has crossed a threshold reserved for very few: he has officially become a billionaire. With an estimated fortune in 1.3 billion of dollars according to the Bloomberg Billionaires indexsports legend not only joins the exclusive club that integrate athletes Like Michael Jordan Or Tiger Woods, but does it without having depended exclusively on his sports achievements. Rather the opposite. Throughout a race that gave him those 20 Grand Slam titles between 2003 and 2018 and some 130.6 million in prizesthe Swiss built a personal brand armored, based on sobriety, constancy, the prestige of the firms that accompanied him and the total absence of scandals. This combination not only multiplied its value outside the clues, but made it one of the most reliable assets of global sport, even after officially retiring in 2022. The quid of longevity. Bloomberg had That Federer’s financial rise was not the product of a late commitment, but a patient construction of long -term commercial relations with top -level companies. Since his early as a professional he signed contracts with signatures Like Rolex, Mercedes Benz, Lindt and Credit suisse (today UBS), all characterized by a conservative, demanding and impeccable reputation approach. His profile fit naturally in that ecosystem, where he was not only brand ambassador, but also national symbol. In 2013, he gave A key step When founding with its agent Tony Godsick the Team8 representation company, which is not only responsible for its businesses but also for the management of its legacy and its foundation. Through it and with the support of the Swiss Format Format A AG, Federer maintained Absolute control About his investments, positioning himself as a self -manager at the height of his legend. The contract with Uniqlo. One of the most striking turns in its commercial career occurred in 2018, when Federer left Nike After more than two decades of relationship. The American firm considered that tennis was no longer a strategic market, which allowed Uniqlo (owned by the Japanese Fast retailing) to do A historical offer: 300 million of dollars for ten years, without clauses linked to sports activity. Federer was then 37 years old and was already in the final stretch of his career, which turned the agreement into an unusual but safe bet: the brand wanted to associate not only with the player, but with the symbol. The contract with Uniqlo, far from marking the end of his great income, laid the foundations for his next master play. THE GREAT INVESTMENT: ON. Talk later From her a while ago. Federer’s greatest financial success was not a sponsorship, but a strategic investment of casual origin: His wife bought some sneakers from an emerging Swiss brand called onspecialized in high performance footwear. Federer, design enthusiast and collector of more than 250 pairs of sneakers, met with the founders in Zurich and shortly thereafter about 3% of the company. The alliance was not limited to capital: he spent hours in the laboratory designing its own model and promoting the brand through its global image. Today, ON Holding AG is valued in about 17,000 million dollarswhich turns Federer’s participation into a source of income of more than 500 million, well above alone of everything he won on the track. His entrance as an investor coincided with the company’s IP, which further reinforced his position as a visionary entrepreneur (and with flower). The profitability of the image. They explained in Fortune that the secret behind Federer’s commercial durability does not only reside in millionaire contracts, but in coherence and control of Your public projection. Unlike other great athletes, Federer has avoided linking To questionable brands, to ephemeral media projects or excessive exhibitions in sports media and comments. His figure remains associated with the elegance, precision and neutrality of his game on the track, deeply Swiss attributes that have made him an ideal ambassador for companies that value stability and reputation. Even its recent appearances, such as The start act of the 24 hours of Le Mans or the launch of his New collection with Uniqlo In Paris, they respond to a measure of visibility measure that enhances the value of their personal brand without wearing it. The legacy. If you want also, Federer’s rise to the status of a multimillionaire not only reaffirms his mastery inside (and outside) of the track, but redefines the horizon of what an athlete You can build No need for controversy, stridency or forced retirement. His case shows that the Personal brandwhen managed with intelligence, coherence, and long -term vision, it can be as powerful as any right -wing blow. Of course, none of this would have been possible without overwhelmingly good That was playing tennis. That and, of course, some luck with the casual purchase of a wife’s shoes. The same ones that are reporting much more than the 20 Grand Slams. Image | Not angouh me, Tigre Municipality In Xataka | In his unstoppable path to world domination, Uniqlo now sponsors Roger Federer In Xataka | On running has been made in the hypercompetitive shoe industry with a secret: the sole

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