Zara owner buys London office for £82 million to add to prime property portfolio

AMANCIO Ortega, the billionaire founder of the Zara fashion brand, acquired an office building in central London for £82 million (S$136.2 million) to add to his portfolio of prime real estate.

Pontegadea Inversiones SL bought the property, located on 33 Foley Street, between Regent’s Park and Oxford Street in the British capital’s Fitzrovia district, from abrdn, according to a spokesperson for the firm, which operates as Ortega’s family office.

Ortega has the biggest real estate portfolio among Europe’ super-rich, valued at 15.3 billion euros (S$22.4 million) as of 2021, according to the most recent data available. Other landmark properties owned by him around the world include The Post building in London, Manhattan’s Haughwout Building and Miami’s Southeast Financial Center.

While Ortega, 87, has traditionally focused on premium real estate, in recent years he’s diversified his investments by buying up a stake in natural gas pipeline company Enagas and ploughing funds into energy companies and logistics centres. Last year, the firm splashed out more than US$900 million on warehouses across the US.

The 34,000 square-feet (3,159 square metre) office space in Fitzrovia had previously been occupied by the BBC before it was redeveloped by Kier Group plc and sold to Standard Life Investments in 2017 for £87.4 million, according to the builder’s website. News of the purchase was first reported by Cinco Dias newspaper.

This year, Pontegadea is set to receive close to 2 billion euros in dividends from Ortega’s 59 per cent stake in the Spanish fashion retailer Inditex The firm needs to deploy all the cash within twelve months of receiving it in order to avoid paying wealth tax in Spain. BLOOMBERG