Amancio Ortega’s investment company, Pontegadea, will invest 245 million euros in the acquisition of a 49% stake in the Delta wind power complex, located in the province of Zaragoza, which has been in operation since March and has an installed capacity of 335 megawatts (MW) owned by Inditex.
This is “the first operation in the renewable sector” of the investment vehicle of the largest Spanish fortune, the energy company points out in a note sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
The wind farm complex, which Repsol acquired in June 2019 from the Aragonese group Forestalia, is the first of its kind developed by the company headed by Antonio Brufau. It consists of eight wind farms and a total of 89 wind turbines, will produce 992 GWh of 100% renewable energy per year, equivalent to the average annual consumption of 300,000 households, and will prevent the emission into the atmosphere of one million tons of CO2 per year.
The operation values 100% of the complex at 500 million. As the energy company explains in a note, for its CEO, Josu Jon Imaz, “having Pontegadea as a partner in Delta confirms the quality of our assets and will allow us to accelerate our growth in renewables, within the framework of an efficient and sustainable energy transition, and with the objective of being a company with zero net emissions by 2050”.
Roberto Cibeira, CEO of Pontegadea, highlighted that “this transaction with a solid and reliable partner such as Repsol is part of Pontegadea’s global investment strategy and allows us to strengthen the environmental commitment that accompanies all the activities in our portfolio, both in the energy sector and in the management of real estate assets and textile distribution”.
With this operation, Ortega is betting on energy at a time of tribulations for the real estate sector, which has traditionally been the big bet of Pontegadea, the largest Spanish real estate company, focused on the sale and rental of large buildings whose value was reduced by more than 7% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
Last July, the billionaire bought almost in one fell swoop 5% of Red Eléctrica de España (REE) and another 12% of its Portuguese counterpart REN, becoming its second largest shareholder, in two operations valued at more than 640 million. And in December 2019, its holding company Pontegadea acquired 5% for 281.63 Million of Enagás, the gas network manager, with which it equaled its shareholding to that held by the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), although it has not asked to join its board of directors.