Zara Billionaire Ortega Buys Hotel in Paris for $113 Million
Ortega's family office Pontegadea acquired the building from Derby Hotels, a spokesman for the Spanish firm said, confirming a report in newspaper Expansion. The five-star hotel is located in central Paris, near the Palais Garnier opera theatre.
Pontegadea holds Ortega's 59 percent stake in Zara-owner Inditex SA and reinvests its dividends, mainly in real estate. The family office also holds investments in infrastructure and energy assets.
This year, Ortega had already acquired an apartment building in Fort Lauderdale for about €165 million and an office building in Barcelona for €250 million. It will be the first year Ortega, 89, receives more than €3 billion in dividends from Inditex, the company he founded more than 50 years ago in northwestern Spain.
In 2024, Pontegadea acquired a commercial building in Paris for about €200 million.
Pontegadea's strategy is to invest mainly in high-end commercial and residential real estate, mostly in a handful of cities in western Europe, as well as in the US and Canada. The firm rarely invests in hotels.
Inditex, the world's largest clothing firm, has a market value of €136 billion. Ortega's personal fortune amounts to about €103 billion, making him Spain's wealthiest person and Europe's second richest, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
By Rodrigo Orihuela
Learn more:
Zara Founder Ortega Buys Dutch Warehouse Leased to Primark for $110 Million
The deal follows investments in logistics assets in the United States, including the acquisition in December of a warehouse in Florida.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
38 minutes ago
- CNBC
'To be free in this world, you must be feared': France's Macron calls for defense spending boost
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced plans for a substantial increase in defense spending over the next few years, warning of imminent threats to France and wider Europe's security. ″Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously," Macron said, addressing leaders of the armed forces on the eve of the Bastille Day national holiday. ″To be free in this world, you must be feared. To be feared, you must be powerful," he said, in comments released by the Elysee Palace. Macron cited Russia, the ongoing war in Ukraine, cybercrime and terrorism as threats to national and European freedom. Macron called for to raise defense spending by 3.5 billion euros ($4.09 billion) next year and by another 3 billion in 2027. That would take the total amount spent on security that year to 64 billion euros — double the defense budget the the French armed forces had in 2017, when Macron first became president. French lawmakers must approve the increases before they can be enacted. France's parliament, the National Assembly, has already endured months of wrangling over the wider 2025 national budget and cost savings, with arguments leading to a previous government collapse late last year. France is attempting to rein in its yawning budget deficit, which hit 5.8% in 2024, along with public debt that amounted to 113% of the gross domestic product over the period. Macron said more details on the plans would be announced by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday when he gives an update on the 2026 budget. More "austerity" measures could be revealed at the time — or tax hikes, which would be unpopular with the Right. On Sunday, Macron called on his compatriots to work for the greater good. "The nation needs you," Macron said, adding that "every French man and woman must be cognitive of the threat around us," adding that, "we all need to make sacrifices. Freedom has a price tag." That price tag might be too high for lawmakers to accept, particularly those on the Left, who are already railing against spending cuts. Savings need to be made to reduce the budget deficit, which the government is targeting at 5.4% this year and 4.6% in 2026. Getting to the 2026 target implies that 40 billion euros' ($46 billion) worth of savings need to be found this year, Finance Minister Eric Lombard said in April. "I am sticking to the target of 4.6% for 2026, which will require an extra and very considerable effort worth 40 billion euros," Lombard told BFM TV, in comments translated by Reuters. "We are in a state of emergency, regarding our budget," he added.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
What Trump's 30% tariff threat means for the European Union — in charts
U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from August 1. The announcement, which follows similar warnings to other trading partners, could make everything from German machinery and French cheese to Italian luxury goods and Danish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S. Trump revealed the new rate in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which he posted on Saturday on his social media site Truth Social. The U.S. president shared a similar letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. For the EU, the prospect of fresh U.S. tariffs represents a major blow. The 27-nation bloc had been scrambling to secure a preliminary agreement to spare it from becoming the latest recipient of a Trump letter dictating a new, across-the-board tariff on its exports to the U.S. Here's a look at some of the key figures of the U.S.-EU's massive trading relationship. The U.S. and EU have the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world, representing almost 30% of global trade in goods and services, and accounting for 43% of global gross domestic product (GDP), according to EU figures . Last year alone, the value of EU-U.S. trade amounted to 1.68 trillion euros ($1.96 trillion). That's the equivalent of roughly 4.6 billion euros of trade per day. Trump has repeatedly hit out at the EU for what he perceives to be an unfair trading relationship, often citing the EU's trade surplus with the U.S. For its part, the EU has signaled a willingness to reduce its 198 billion euros trade surplus in goods with the U.S. by increasing its purchase of U.S. products, notably defense and liquified natural gas (LNG). Taking into account both trade and services, the EU's total trade surplus with the U.S. stood at a total of 50 billion euros in 2024, a figure which the bloc says represents less than 3% of total U.S.-EU trade. By sector, the pharmaceutical, automotive and aircraft sectors appear to be the most exposed to U.S. tariffs, while Germany, Italy and Ireland are among the EU members likely to be the hardest hit. Trump has said the proposed 30% tariff rate would be separate from sectoral tariffs, suggesting the 50% duties on steel and aluminum imports and 25% on auto imports would remain. The EU has not yet retaliated to Trump's next big tariff deadline. EU ministers are meeting in Brussels, Belgium on Monday to discuss how best to respond. In a Monday note, analysts at UBS said they continued to believe the EU and U.S. would reach an agreement before Aug. 1 or that the White House would extend its deadline again while negotiations continue. However, they added that "aggressive" U.S. demands, including for complete open market access with no tariff charged to it, made it hard to predict how Brussels would respond and increased the risk of economic damage to both sides. — CNBC's Jenni Reid contributed to this report.
2 hours ago
European trade ministers meet to forge strategy after surprise 30% tariffs from Trump
BRUSSELS -- European trade ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday, following U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement of 30% tariffs on the European Union. The EU is America's biggest business partner and the world's largest trading bloc. The U.S. decision will have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. 'We shouldn't impose countermeasures at this stage, but we should prepare to be ready to use all the tools in the toolbox,' said Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told reporters ahead of the meeting. 'So we want a deal, but there's an old saying: 'If you want peace, you have to prepare for war.'' The tariffs, also imposed on Mexico, are set to start on Aug. 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S., and destabilize economies from Portugal to Norway. Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month. The 'countermeasures' by the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries, will be delayed until Aug. 1. Trump's letter shows 'that we have until the first of August' to negotiate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday. The letters to the EU and Mexico come in the midst of an on-and-off Trump threat to impose tariffs on countries and right an imbalance in trade. Trump in April imposed tariffs on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. As the three-month grace period ended this week, he began sending tariff letters to leaders but again has pushed back the implementation day for what he says will be just a few more weeks. If he moves forward with the tariffs, it could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy. In the wake of the new tariffs, European leaders largely closed ranks, calling for unity but also a steady hand to not provoke further acrimony. Just last week, Europe was cautiously optimistic. Officials told reporters on Friday they weren't expecting a letter like the one sent Saturday and that a trade deal was to be inked in 'the coming days." For months, the EU has broadcast that it has strong retaliatory measures ready if talks fail. Reeling from successive rebukes from Washington, the EU is now diversifying its economic, political and defense networks, mostly in Asia. The EU top brass will visit Beijing for a summit later this month while courting other Pacific nations like South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia, whose prime minister visited Brussels over the weekend to sign a new economic partnership with the EU. It also has mega-deals in the works with Mexico and a trading bloc of South American nations known as Mercosur. While meeting with Indonesia's prime minister on Sunday, Von der Leyen said that 'when economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together.'
