Zara Billionaire Ortega Doubles Money on $460 Million Telecom Bet
- Ortega’s Pontegadea bought stake in Telefonica unit in 2018
- Spanish billionaire has typically invested in real estate
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Amancio Ortega more than doubled his money in three years on a rare foray outside of real estate, the usual focus of the billionaire’s personal investments.
Ortega’s investment firm, Pontegadea Inversiones, bought a 9.99% stake in Spain’s Telefonica SA’s tower unit in mid-2018 in a deal that valued Telxius Telecom SA at about 3.8 billion euros ($4.6 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. American Tower Corp. said Wednesday it’s paying 7.7 billion euros for about 70% of the unit’s assets, according to a Telefonica spokesman, giving the Zara founder a return of at least 103%.