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Zara founder ramps up global property buys to cut $104 billion wealth tax
Bloomberg
Zara founder Amancio Ortega's private investment firm is on a global deal spree, picking up a string of trophy assets in recent weeks as he seeks to deploy his expanding fortune to avoid wealth taxes.
The Inditex SA founder's family office, Pontegadea, snapped up a five-star Paris hotel, a Florida apartment block and a building on Barcelona's iconic Diagonal Avenue as part of transactions totaling more than $500 million in the past three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The A Coruna, Spain-based firm is also in talks to buy an office building in Miami for $275 million, lining up a further addition to Europe's biggest real estate empire owned by an individual investor.
The spending spree coincides with him receiving his biggest-ever annual dividend from the retail giant he founded more than six decades ago, with about half the expected €3.1 billion ($3.6 billion) paid out in early May. In a legal quirk, Ortega – Inditex's biggest shareholder with a 59% stake — must swiftly spend those payouts or face handing over a chunk of it in extra taxes in Spain, the only European Union nation that currently has a full-on wealth tax for rich residents.
'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, an advisory firm for family offices. 'This is liability management, not trophy-hunting.'
Dividend Payouts
Pontegadea's assets have swelled from the dividend payouts over the years, shaping it into one of the world's largest – and most active – family offices. Many of these firms are becoming increasingly influential in global business thanks to the wealth at their disposal and the need for reinvestment.
Pontegadea had net assets of €34.3 billion at the end of last year, up 10.6% from 12 months earlier, according to registry filings published this month. Ortega's Inditex stake, though, still makes up the bulk of his wealth. At least a fifth of individuals among the world's 500 biggest fortunes now have a family office that help to oversee fortunes totaling more than $4 trillion, according to the index.
In Europe, Ortega trails only LVMH founder Bernard Arnault on Bloomberg's list of richest individuals.
Ortega founded the company that grew into Inditex in 1963. The son of a railroad worker, the billionaire never had his own office while he worked at the retailer, preferring to be alongside employees in the main design area. He stepped down as chairman in 2011 and was replaced by long-time executive Pablo Isla. His only child from his second marriage, 41-year-old Marta Ortega, took over in 2022.
Sandra, 56, the daughter from his first marriage, controls the shares that her late mother held in Inditex. She doesn't have a role in the business and has diversified her own fortune into real estate, pharmaceuticals and hospitality. Her $12.4 billion net worth makes her Spain's richest woman, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Through Pontegadea, Amancio Ortega owns iconic properties such as New York's Haughwout Building, the Southeast Financial Center in Miami and London's The Post Building. He also controls prime residential and commercial real estate in cities from Toronto to Seoul — buildings that count Facebook, Amazon.com Inc., Zara, and even rival Hennes & Mauritz AB among tenants.
In addition to real estate, Pontegadea can invest in energy infrastructure or stakes of at least 5% in publicly listed companies to reduce the threat of Spain's wealth taxes. The family office acquired major holdings in Spanish gas transportation operator Enagas SA in 2019 and, two years later, a Portuguese rival.
For its infrastructure bets, Pontegadea has repeatedly turned to buyout giant KKR & Co Inc., underscoring the scale of the family office's investing operations. In 2018, it joined the Wall Street firm in becoming a shareholder in Telefonica SA's tower unit and the firms have since closed at least two further deals, including Pontegadea buying a 20% stake in KKR-controlled Dutch parking operator Q-Park during December. Pontegadea is also in talks with firms including KKR to acquire the Sabadell Financial Center building in Miami.
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