Over nearly three years, Amancio Ortega expanded again into the Spanish real estate market, a move that surprised many observers. News of two hotel acquisitions in the Balearic Islands circulated as a Christmas Eve scoop from major regional outlets, and the deal finally closed in July of the following year. The purchase involved the Concepció by Nobis and Nobis Palma hotels for 35 million, with the buyer kept private until now.
The founder of Inditex entered Spain’s property landscape once more, though this time the scale was modest by his standards. The 35 million dollars paid for two hospitality assets marks a smaller footprint compared with his typical investments. The most recent Spanish real estate asset prior to this was the Senator Playaballena hotel in Cadiz, acquired in December 2020 for 25 million.
25 acquisitions in three years
Since that period, Ortega’s real estate portfolio has grown with 25 investments, the majority of which exceeded 100 million. A standout example is a 500 million dollar skyscraper in Manhattan housing luxury residences. Another high-profile asset is the Royal Bank Plaza office tower in Toronto, purchased for 843 million last year, alongside seven large logistics centers spread across six U.S. states for about 900 million in a single year.
In Spain, the Senator Playaballena project and the recent Madrid and Cadiz additions represent smaller steps within a broader strategy. Earlier milestones included the Picasso Tower in Madrid in 2011 and the Cepsa Tower in 2016, bought for 400 and 490 million respectively, a stark contrast to the 25 million and 35 million investment figures tied to the Cadiz and Mallorca hotels.
Across three years, most investments occurred outside Spain, with five of the 25 deals confined to the home country and five concentrated in the renewable energy sector. The group notably acquired 5 percent of Red Eléctrica for 456 million in July 2021 and 49 percent of a large wind complex in Zaragoza from Repsol for 245 million in November. In 2022, additional renewable energy moves included a 5 percent stake in Enagás Renovable for 3.5 million and 49 percent of Repsol’s Kappa photovoltaic complex in Ciudad Real for 27 million. The final 2022 deal brought 49 percent of Repsol’s renewable assets across Spain for 363 million. That year and the next, the total spend reached 3.118 billion dollars across 22 transactions, with only 13 percent on national soil and 68 percent in the United States.
Why not invest more?
Motive behind the pace of Spanish investments was explained by the investment arm of Pontegadea, the leading shareholder in Inditex. In a candid public remark, Roberto Cibeira pointed to the high prices and the crowded national market as reasons for the cautious approach. Still, he underscored that the group would stay alert for potential price adjustments and would invest when opportunities align with their criteria. The message was clear: Spain remains on the radar, even if larger deals have paused for now.
Ortega’s real estate strategy began to take shape in 2002, initially within Spain and then abroad. The first Pontegadea acquisition followed shortly after Inditex’s public listing, when four hotels in the NH chain were purchased for 15.2 billion old pesetas (about 91.4 million euros).