Fashion tycoon 'triples renewable energy investments'
Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega who is among world’s richest people has bought stakes in a string of wind and solar farms in recent years
Amancio Ortega, the billionaire fashion tycoon behind high-street giant Zara, reportedly almost tripled his investments in renewable energy last year as he continues to accessorise his fashion and real estate empire.
Pontegadea has a 59.29% stake in Inditex, the retail group founded by Spain’s Ortega that owns global clothing chain Zara and other brands including Bershka and Pull&Bear.
As well as retail brands, Pontegadea owns prime real estate around the world, including swathes of the Champs-Élysées in Paris and London’s Oxford Street, and has been landlord to both Facebook and Amazon in the US.
Ortega has for several years now been ramping up his investment in renewable energy.
He entered the sector in 2021 by taking a stake in a Spanish wind farm built by oil group Repsol, paying €245m for a 49% share of the 335MW project, and took the same stake in a solar complex the following year.
That transaction covered 12 onshore wind farms totalling 398MW and two solar plants in Spain. Pontegadea also last year agreed to buy three French wind farms totalling around 158MW from EDF's green unit, a deal reported to be worth €160m.
Ortega’s home country Spain reached a landmark of generating over half of its electricity from renewables last year.