Billionaire Zara founder Amancio Ortega to receive €3.23bn dividend

Payment for Inditex founder, the world’s 15 richest person, tops last year’s dividend of €3.1bn The billionaire founder of Zara is to receive a company record €3.23bn (£2.8bn) dividend this year from the world’s biggest fashion retailer. Amancio Ortega, who still controls 59% of Spain’s Inditex and whose daughter Marta Ortega Pérez is now chair, will receive half his dividend in May and half in November – as will other shareholders. Inditex, which owns a raft of high street chains including Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius and Oysho, said on Wednesday it would increase its dividend by 4% after a “robust operating performance” in 2025. The payout narrowly outstrips a €3.1bn dividend handed to Ortega last year. He has a net worth of about $126.7bn (£94bn), making him the 15th wealthiest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg billionaires index. Sales at Inditex, which has 5,460 stores across more than 90 countries and employs over 160,000 people, increased by 3.2% to €39.9bn in the year to 31 January 2026. Pre-tax profit rose by 5.8% to €8bn, according to results released on Wednesday. Although Inditex closed 103 stores worldwide las