Zara founder's real estate assets near 10 billion euros in 2018

Amancio Ortega, Europe's richest man and founder of retailer Inditex , had commercial property assets worth nearly 10 billion euros ($11 billion) at the end of 2018, up 11.5 percent from the previous year according to his investment firm on Wednesday. Using the huge dividend payouts from Inditex, octogenarian Ortega has made largely debt-free purchases of buildings ranging from prime shopping real estate in London and New York to office buildings in central Madrid. Most of Ortega's commercial holdings have been consolidated into a company called Pontegadea Inversiones which owns a 50.01 percent stake in Inditex alongside billions of euros in real estate investments. Pontegadea's annual results showed real estate assets of 9.767 billion euros at the end of 2018.