Else Beekman
Amancio Ortega is the founder of textile giant Inditex, with fashion chains Zara, Bershka and Pull & Bear. However, he has a preference for real estate, partly because of its profitability. Through his investment firm Pontegadea, the founder and major shareholder of Inditex has expanded his real estate portfolio to more than €20 billion in assets.
It is mainly the real estate investment on which the richest man in Spain spends a large part of the dividends he receives from the Inditex Group.
A preference for real estate
This preference has led to him owning the largest real estate company in Spain. Pontegadea focuses on the purchase and management of large buildings. The portfolio consists mainly of office buildings located in the prime zones of major cities in Spain, the UK, the US or Asia, among other countries.
Recent purchases
One of the last transactions of Ortega’s investment company was the purchase of the Royal Park office building in Luxembourg. This was purchased from the Baltisse company for an amount of €165 million. This is the first property that Ortega has purchased in Luxembourg. It has an area of 10,000 square metres and is the Luxembourg seat of the European private equity fund CVC. The bank BTG Pactual and the American law firm Goodwin Procter are also located there.
Ortega carried out this transaction after establishing a new company in Luxembourg in January. In Pontegadea Luxembourg he bundles real estate investments worth more than €3,300 million.
“Very profitable” investments
The purchase of Royal Park is the third transaction that Pontegadea has completed this year. It previously bought a logistics warehouse in the Netherlands from Blackstone for $100 million. Primark has its European distribution centre there. Pontegadea also purchased a logistics warehouse that is now leased to Amazon near the Canadian city of Vancouver for an amount of approximately €260 million.
A smart investor
Analysts consider these investments to be “highly profitable”. “Amancio Ortega has made various investments in the real estate market for years. He did this in buildings that are active for the Spanish magnate. The aim is to receive income through office rentals to companies that guarantee the rent in the medium and long term,” says Diego Morín, analyst at IG.
Dividends and new purchases
Pontegadea received €2,217 million in dividends from Inditex last year. In 2022 that was €1,718 million. That year the company achieved a net profit of €2,092 million, an increase of 30.2% compared to the previous year. The purchase of new assets, mainly in the logistics and residential sectors, during 2022, increased the value of its real estate portfolio to €18,156 million. This is an increase of 19% compared to the €15,264 million valuation on December 31, 2021. Pontegadea closed the 2022 financial year with a turnover of €2,557 million, an increase of 30% compared to 2021.
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