tycoon

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)