THE founder of the Inditex fashion group, Amancio Ortega, has been named as the richest Spaniard for the 12th successive year by Forbes magazine.
The only name from the world of entertainment is singer Julio Iglesias who stands at 81 in the survey covering 100 names.
The hundred largest fortunes in the country have a total €258.89 billion in assets, which is 7% more than in 2024.
READ MORE:
These are mostly entrepreneurs who turned small family businesses into multinational corporations 40 years ago .
Since then, according to Forbes, Spain has not produced a new wave of wealth creators in emerging sectors like technology.
It also points out that there’s a lack of innovation.
Amancio Ortega, 89, has led the standings since 2014 although this year his fortune has fallen by 8.6% compared to 2024.
That says Forbes is due in part ‘to the slowdown in sales and the slowdown in consumption in the first half of the year, pending the impact of the tariffs imposed by the US administration in the second part of 2025’.
Nevertheless, Ortega has a net worth of €109.9 billion and continues to be in the ‘top-10’ of the wealthiest people in the world in ninth spot, behind the founders of Google.
Behind him is his daughter Sandra Ortega- the only woman in the top five on the list- whose fortune has also decreased by €400 million, to a mere €10 billion euros.
In third place is the chairman of the multi-national infrastructure company, Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino y Calvo-Sotelo, who keeps his third slot with €8 billion- a total that has gone up by 11.8% since 2024.
Fourth is the Valencian businessman and boss of the Mercadona supermarket chain, Juan Roig.
Forbes puts his wealth at €7.9 billion- a big rise of 36.6% over a year.
Fifth place sees the banking world represented via the president of Abanca, Juan Carlos Escotet, with €6.2 billion and a bumper rise in assets of 55% compared to 2024.
Click here to read more Business & Finance News from The Olive Press.
