11/02/2021 at 09:20 CET

PE

The founder of Index, Amancio Ortega, remains the number one fortune in Spain, with a net worth of 67,000 million euros, followed by his daughter Sandra Ortega and of President of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino. All three are at the top of the list of the 100 great national fortunes made by the magazine ‘Forbes’.

For one more year, the Spanish Forbes list is led by the owner of 60% of Inditex, whose fortune, 10 billion more than that of 2020, is equivalent to that of the next 52 millionaires in the ranking.

In reality, This week, Ortega has expanded his fortune, registering this Tuesday 646.8 million euros for the second and last remuneration of the year that the Galician firm will pay to its shareholders, for a total of € 1,293.6 million this year.

Thus, the leadership of the majority shareholder of Inditex remains firm and with better results than last year, marked by the pandemic and in which his fortune was 6,000 million less than that of 2019.

Behind the founder of Inditex is his daughter Sandra, the only woman in the top five positions on the list, with a fortune of 6,300 million euros, 12.5% ​​more than last year, and the president of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino, who overtakes the president of Mercadona, Juan Roig, in the list and goes up in third position with 3,800 million against 3,700 million for the president of the supermarket chain.

In fifth place is the president of Abanca, Juan Carlos Escotet, who has a fortune of 2,700 million euros.

Amancio Ortega, Sandra Ortega, Rafael del Pino, Juan Roig and Juan Carlos Escotet, who concentrate more than 50% of the total fortune with 83,500 million euros, are at the top of this ranking, in which the rise of the president of Ferrovial from fourth to third thanks to the company’s good stock market performance and its dividend policy.

Great fortunes were recovered from the pandemic and even approaching pre-crisis levels in 2018, according to Forbes. This is reflected in the wealth accumulated during this year of the richest hundred people, with a total of 153,575 million euros, 17% more than in 2020.

This would mean, on average, that each millionaire increased their portfolio by 565,000 euros per day. What else, the hundred most powerful Spanish families totaled 198,430 million, 14.7% more than last year.

The 2021 list is closed by José Riquelme, Joseba Grajales, Miguel Ángel and Mar García-Baquero, Jorge and Josep and Oriol Puig with 250 million each.

Without a doubt, this new edition is the “greenest”, according to Forbes. Renewable energies are thus reinforced in the list with the presence, among others, of José Elías, majority shareholder of Audax Renovables (900 million euros); José María Galíndez, vice-president of the board of directors of Solarpack (400 million); Dolores Larrañaga, main shareholder of Solaria (375 million) or Enric Asunción, president and co-founder of Wallbox (325 million), specializing in charging stations for electric vehicles. Total, these 19 new additions contribute 2,800 million euros.

Gender inequality

Regarding the gender division, the presence of women in the ranking is still in the minority (only 30% occupy it). Indeed, the average wealth of men is 1,511 million euros and that of women 993 million.

With Sandra Ortega at the helm, they are followed by Alicia Koplowitz, owner of Omega Capital, and Hortensia Herrero, shareholder of Mercadona, in sixth and seventh places with respectively 2,300 million.

By regions, Madrid is the community that contributes the most multimillionaire women to the ranking with 19 fortunes that accumulate 12,875 millions; followed by Catalonia, with 18 women and a sum of 8,550 million euros. At the other extreme are Extremadura and Navarre, where no woman has more than 30 million euros.

In this edition, not on the list: Asunción Manzanet, owner of Sorman; Silvia Mora-Figueroa Domecq, owner of Agriculturas Diversas; Aurèlia Carulla, shareholder of Agrolimen, or Montserrat Grifols Gras, shareholder of the pharmaceutical group Grifols.

Madrid, in the lead

Also, Madrid continues to lead the ranking of the richest communities thanks to an aggressive tax policy which enabled it to attract wealth from other communities. In this way, the capital has 36 natives who accumulate a total of 32,825 million euros, but adds 14 other fortunes that have their main seat in Madrid, although they come from other regions.

The fortunes of Madrid are ruled by Rafael del Pino and Calvo-Sotelo (3,800 million), while Dimas Gimeno, former president of El Corte Inglés, and Esther Alcocer Koplowitz, president of the FCC, remain at the gates of the 100 richest Spaniards with 200 million each.

After Madrid and Catalonia, the Basque Country and Murcia are gaining weight in terms of accumulated wealth. Murcia has five of the 100 richest families in Spain, with a combined fortune of 4,525 million euros, and three of the 100 richest Spaniards. In the Basque Country, there are also the fortunes of Daniel Maté, Juan Luis Arregui, Víctor Urrutia and the Sendagorta, Ormazabal and Zardoya families.

In the opposite situation are the Balearic and Canary Islands, whose tourism fortunes have been hit by the covid, although they are recovering. Among the most prominent Canarian businessmen are Eustasio and Aurelio López, owners of Lopesan, and Wolfgang Kiessling, of German origin, promoter of Loro Parque.

Nadal and Fernando Alonso

Finally, special mention is made of the record of Spanish athletes like Rafa Nadal and Fernando Alonso who, although they do not appear on the list of the “100 richest Spaniards”, accumulate a fortune of 225 million euros, followed of Sergio Ramos, Iniesta and I hammered with 100 million each.

With the exception of Iniesta, Spain’s athletes are not among the richest internationals either, and three have been moved from the Forbes ranking of ‘highest paid athletes in the world’.

Tennis player Rafael Nadal ranked 27th in 2020 with earnings of $ 40 million, but this year he passed 50th.

Likewise, Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso was the thirty-ninth in 2018, with $ 32 million, but already in 2019 he was absent, while Pau Gasol, who placed 57th in 2014 with 21.8 million dollars, jumped in the rankings in 2015.