Spain: Zara Founder Amancio Ortega Briefly World’s Richest Man
By MINA
Zara’s founder and Spanish businessmen Amancio Ortega briefly overtook Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man on Friday, according to Forbes magazine.
Forbes updated the latest rise in the stock market value of Inditex, the world’s leading retailer that operates Zara’s brand, whose shares hit an all-time high on Friday taking Ortega’s fortune above the 70 billion euro mark (77 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time, rising to 79.6 billion U.S. dollars.
Ortega has a 59.29 percent stake in Inditex that is valued at 62.3 billion euros (68.6 billion U.S. dollars).
Ortega’s reign, however, was short lived, as a 10 percent surge in Microsoft’s stocks allowed Bill Gates to regain the title of the World’s Richest Man.
Inditex operates eight brands including Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterque. It has around 6,746 stores in 88 different markets and employs 140,000 people.
