Zara founder Ortega's real estate assets worth $15.5 billion in 2021

MADRID (Reuters) - The family office of Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, founder and main shareholder of fashion group Inditex, reported on Thursday its real estate assets' market value rose by over 1 billion euros to 15.2 billion euros ($15.53 billion) in 2021.

Pontegadea, the Ortega family's investment vehicle, controls a 59.29% stake in Inditex and manages a portfolio of property investments that include buildings in New York, Toronto, London and downtown Madrid. The real estate asset portfolio was worth 14.08 billion euros at the end of 2020.

Pontegadea booked a net profit of 1.60 billion euros in 2021 up from 666 million euros in 2020, mainly loaded by Inditex's dividends which soared as the fashion retailer Zara recovered from the pandemic restrictions.

Ortega has mainly focused on investing in real-estate assets though in recent years his holding firm has taken stakes in energy assets.

Last year, Pontegadea became the largest private investor in Spain's electricity grid operator Red Electrica, with a 5% stake, bought a 49% stake in a wind farm operated by Spanish energy group Repsol and a 12% stake in Portuguese energy company.

Pontegadea's 2021 results included the gains made on the sale of Telxius' tower division to American Tower in January 2021, the family office said. Ortega used to own a 30% in Telxius.

($1 = 0.9789 euros)

(Reporting by Corina Pons;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)