Zara’s billionaire founder Amancio Ortega is seizing on the commercial property downturn as a chance to buy assets on the cheap.
Pontegadea, Ortega’s €90bn-plus personal investment group, is expanding its real estate holdings via a “buy the dip” strategy. The Spanish fund, which owns 59% of Zara’s parent company Inditex, has in the past year announced 10 acquisitions worth €1.1bn spanning logistics, offices and residential property.
Because Pontegadea does not need to take on debt, it has been unaffected by the high interest rates that have pushed transaction volumes down by more than 50% in the US and Europe in the past year.
