Ortega: now world’s richest man

Zara’s founder Amancio Ortega has overtaken Bill Gates to become the world’s richest man, local Spanish media reported on Friday citing Forbes magazine.

Forbes updated the latest rise in the stock market value of Inditex, the world’s leading retailer that operates Zara’s brand, whose shares hit an all-time high on Friday taking Ortega’s fortune above the 70 billion euro mark (77 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time, rising to 79.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Ortega has a 59.29 percent stake in Inditex that is valued at 62.3 billion euros (68.6 billion U.S. dollars).

He has overtaken Microsoft’s Bill Gates whose fortune rose to 78.1 billion U.S. dollars on Friday morning.

Inditex operates eight brands including Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterque. It has around 6,746 stores in 88 different markets and employs 140,000 people.

*Reported by Xinhua/NAN