Inditex’s founder and controlling shareholder, Amancio Ortega, will receive 2.845 billion in dividends from the Galician fashion group headquartered in Arteixo (A Coruña) this year. Ortega holds 59.29% of the company, with half of that stake owned through Pontegadea Inversiones. Inditex disclosed a record net profit of 5.400 billion, up 30% from the previous year, and boosted the dividend by 28% to 4.800 billion in total, or 1.54 euros per share. [Source: company disclosures and market reporting]
These 2.845 billion in dividends, payable on May 2 and November 4, exceed the profits of 29 Ibex 35 companies. Only six companies surpass this amount: Inditex itself, Banco Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Iberdrola, and Repsol. [Source: market data]
The richest man in Spain could begin taking control, share by share, of up to 13 Ibex 35 companies with this dividend. In other words, the 2.845 billion could allow him to capture 51% of Merlin Properties, valued at 4.348 billion; Fluidra, worth 4.343 billion on the market; Laboratorios Rovi, rated at 4.219 billion; Enagás, at 3.501 billion; Logista, at 3.348 billion; and Indra, at 3.295 billion. [Source: market capitalization data]
With the dividend, he could even launch a voluntary delisting offer for six listed companies. Those include Colonial, valued at 2.784 billion; Unicaja, at 2.713 billion; Acerinox, at 2.581 billion; and Sacyr, at 2.162 billion. In the case of the two smallest Ibex 35 constituents, the dividend would exceed their combined market caps, which total 2.771 billion for Meliá Hotels and Solaria (1.503 billion and 1.268 billion respectively). [Source: market capitalization and delisting thresholds]
The shareholder remuneration from Inditex is the highest in the group’s history. It comprises a regular dividend of 1.04 euros per share and an extraordinary dividend of 0.50 euros per share. Inditex’s dividend policy includes a regular payout of 60% of net profit and the distribution of additional extraordinary dividends. [Source: company policy disclosures]
Ortega: bricks, infrastructure and renewables
The founder of Inditex remains the controlling shareholder of the fashion house and Pontegadea, which has grown into the largest real estate company in Spain with assets in Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, and Asia, valued at 18.156 billion. [Source: Pontegadea disclosures]
This year, Pontegadea invested 260 million in a logistics facility leased to Amazon near Vancouver, Canada, and 100 million in a logistics facility occupied by Primark in Roosendaal, the Netherlands, acquired from Blackstone. [Source: investment disclosures]
Among Pontegadea’s notable 2023 acquisitions is the Royal Bank Plaza building in Toronto for 800 million euros, a Manhattan skyscraper for 500 million, the West Loop Tower in Chicago for 232 million, a Glasgow office building housing multinational tenants like BNP Paribas and Cbre for 340 million, the Opus luxury apartment complex in Dublin for 100 million, and the former BBC headquarters in London for 93 million. [Source: portfolio highlights]
Pontegadea also holds stakes in infrastructure companies such as Enagás (5%), Telxius (30%), Redeia, the former Red Eléctrica (5%), and the Portuguese Redes Energéticas Nacionais, REN (12%). In renewables, Ortega is a minority shareholder (49%) of a Repsol portfolio consisting of 12 wind farms (398 MW) in Aragón and Castilla y León and two solar plants (220 MW) in Castilla-La Mancha and Andalucía. He also owns a 51% stake in the Delta wind park in Aragón and the Kappa photovoltaic complex in Manzanares (Ciudad Real). [Source: portfolio disclosures and market analysis]