Mysterious Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega, one of the world's richest men, is set to get even richer, after reports he will earn a €1.2 billion (£1 billion) dividend from the company he created, which owns brands like Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti.
Earlier this week, Inditex — which Ortega founded in 1985 — announced that it would pay out a dividend of €0.68 per share, 13.3% up on the year previous after a record set of results.
Ortega owns around 60% of the company, with that dividend worth close to €1.2 billion.
The 80-year old fashion tycoon is the world's third richest man, and Europe's richest, with a net worth of roughly $73.6 billion as of March 17, according to Forbes. He is wealthier than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, with only Bill Gates and Warren Buffett richer.
In October 2015, Ortega's net worth climbed to more than $80 billion when Zara's parent company Inditex's stock peaked, and he briefly became the world's richest man, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes.
Inditex's stock fell soon afterwards, and after just four hours, Ortega went back to being the world's second-richest man, a title he attained in June 2015 by knocking Warren Buffett into third.
But despite his enormous net worth, many people have never heard of him.
Ortega is an incredibly private man, is rarely seen in public, and has given just a handful of interviews throughout his incredibly successful career.
That career began when Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Inditex SA — which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear — has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara is changing retail forever.
While Ortega is immensely private, we do know a fair amount about him, and Business Insider decided to put together everything we know about Ortega's life. Check it out below.
Ashley Lutz and Mallory Schlossberg contributed to earlier versions of this post.
Amancio Ortega is the third-richest man in the world, with a net worth estimated at $73.6 billion. He was born in the town of Busdongo de Arbas, Spain, in March 1936.
Source: Bloomberg
This is his second wife, Flora. The couple has been married since 2001.
Source: Bloomberg
In August 2013, his ex-wife and Zara cofounder, Rosalia Mera, died at 69. She was Spain's richest woman. Ortega and Mera married in 1966, and were divorced in 1986.
Source: Associated Press
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