Zara老闆取代巴菲特成世界第三首富

Fashion tycoon Amancio Ortega, owner of clothing chain Zara, has toppled Warren Buffett in the place the world's third richest man, with a fortune of £30billion.

The 76-year-old Spaniard bumped the Oracle of Omaha off the podium after shares in his retail giant Inditex gained 3.8 percent yesterday to close at a record high, pushing his net worth up by around £1billion.

The news of the tycoon's fortune comes as Spain tries to cope with an unemployment level of nearly 20 percent and a beleaguered government which seems just days from asking for an European bailout.

With a fortune estimated now at £29.7billion, Mr Ortega narrowly pushes philanthropist Mr Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who is worth an estimated £29.1billion, off third place.

Despite their enormous wealth, each of them would have to nearly double their personal wealth to take Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim's crown as the world's richest man.

Bloomberg Billionaires Index today estimated Mr Slim's net worth at £47.3billion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates sits comfortably in second place with £40billion.

But if Mr Ortega's wealth continues to grow, it may not be long before he's in contention for the top two spots.

His wealth has surged by 32 percent this year alone, despite a deep recession in his native Spain, where the government is resisting pressure to ask for a bailout from the European Central Bank.

That has been based on thephenomenal success of his company, which has grown its profits for 12 straight quarters after moving into emerging markets and reducing its dependence on Spain, where unemployment is above 20 percent.

The son of a railway worker, Mr Ortega was born in Busdongo de Arbás, León, and lived his childhood in León. Starting his career as a gofer in various shirt stores in La Coruña, Galicia, in 1972 he founded Confecciones Goa (his initials in reverse), which made bathrobes.

In 1975 he opened the first store in what would grow into the enormously popular chain of fashion stores called Zara.

Despite his great wealth - or perhaps because of it - Mr Ortega lives in a discreet apartment in La Coruna and is said to prefer to keep a very low 服裝連鎖店老總、時尚教主阿曼西奧•奧特加取代沃倫•巴菲特成爲世界第三首富，身家達300億英鎊。

昨天，零售業巨頭Inditex集團的股票上漲了3.8%, 其收盤價創歷史新高，使得這位76歲的西班牙人財富淨增約10億英鎊，將“奧馬哈先知”巴菲特趕下了第三位寶座。

消息傳來時，西班牙正竭力應對國內高達20%的失業率，而備受攻擊的西班牙政府似乎離向歐盟請求緊急援助的日子也不遠了。

據估計奧特加目前的財富約有297億英鎊，以微弱優勢將資產291億英鎊的慈善家巴菲特擠出前三位。巴菲特現任伯克希爾•哈撒韋保險公司總裁。

不過儘管兩人都擁有鉅額財富，但要想坐上墨西哥電信巨頭卡洛斯•斯林姆世界首富的寶座，還得把目前的個人財富翻倍才行。

據彭博億萬富翁指數今日估算，斯林姆的淨資產達473億英鎊，微軟創始人比爾•蓋茨則以400億英鎊的身家穩坐第二首富寶座。

但如果奧特加的財富持續增長，也許要不了多久就能與以上兩大巨頭分庭抗禮。

只今年一年，奧特加的財富就瘋長了32%，而此時他的祖國西班牙還處於深度危機之中。西班牙政府正在極力頂住壓力，以免向歐洲央行尋求緊急援助。

奧特加的財富增長源於他的公司的巨大成功。Zara在挺進新興市場後，連續12個季度盈利，逐步減少對失業率高達20%的西班牙國內市場的依賴。

奧特加是一名鐵路工人的兒子，他在里昂的布斯東果-德-阿巴斯出生，並在那裏度過了童年。他的第一份工作是襯衫店裏打雜的小職員，他在加西利亞區拉科魯尼亞省的好幾家襯衫店裏都打過工。1972年，他創辦了Confecciones Goa公司（Goa就是他姓名首字母縮寫反向排列而成），主要製作睡袍。

1975年，他開了第一家專賣店，正是這家店後來成長爲了極爲流行的時裝連鎖店Zara。

儘管奧特加擁有鉅額財富——或許正因如此——他住在拉科魯尼亞一幢不起眼的公寓裏，據說他更喜歡低調行事。