Amancio Ortega pocketed almost 650 million for the only Inditex dividend in 2020

Inditex founder Amancio Ortega in a file image.Getty

The founder and first shareholder of Inditex, Amancio Ortega, entered this Monday almost 650 million euros for the only dividend that the textile giant will pay this year to its shareholders.

The figure is notably lower than the 1,626 million received in 2019 - then, in two payments - but the pandemic has also hit the accounts of the company based in Arteixo (A Coruña).

In total, Inditex will distribute a little more than 1,090 million euros in dividends among its shareholders, of which Ortega will receive 647. Thus, the Galician group will face the shareholder remuneration this year with a single payment, at a rate of 0.35 euros per title, charged to the results of its fiscal year 2019 in a context marked by the pandemic.

However, the company's dividend policy, which earned 3,639 million in 2019, 6% more after provisioning 287 million for the coronavirus, remains intact: six out of every 10 euros of benefits will go to the pocket of its shareholders.

For its part, the complement of a total extraordinary dividend of 0.78 euros per share, whose distribution was scheduled for 2020 and 2021, which will be distributed in 2021 and 2022. Last year, Inditex paid its shareholders more than 2,742 million in dividends, 0.88 euros per title, divided into two payments, May and November.

Ortega will receive the almost 650 million euros through the companies Pontegadea Inversiones and Partler, with which it controls about 60% of the textile conglomerate.

Most of the dividends he receives, he reinvests them in brick.

The Pontegadea group, which includes all the portfolio companies owned by Ortega, its real estate subsidiaries and business holdings, closed the 2019 financial year with a net profit of 1,778 million euros, an increase of 14.7% compared to the year above, after donating 104 million euros to the Amancio Ortega Foundation, and raised the market value of its real estate portfolio to 15,163 million euros.

This figure consolidates it as the largest operator in the Spanish real estate market and places it above its direct European competitors.

Sandra Ortega receives more than 55 million

For her part, Sandra Ortega, daughter of the Galician businessman who owns just over 5% of Inditex, receives this Monday in a single payment more than 55 million euros in dividends, compared to the 138 million euros she received last year.

After the severe blow of the first fiscal quarter, Inditex obtained a profit of 214 million euros in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2020-2021 (between May 1 and July 31), leaving behind the red numbers of 409 million euros for the first three months, although losses of 195 million euros were recorded in the first semester (between February 1 and July 31) in a context marked by the impact of covid-19.

If the provision of 308 million euros made in the first quarter to accelerate the strategy of integration of stores with online sales is excluded, the half-yearly net profit is already positive, reaching 39 million euros.

Likewise, the group's sales in the first semester have continued to recover until reaching 8,033 million euros, limiting their fall to 37%, thanks to the fact that in the second quarter they moderated their fall to 31%, to 4,730 million euros, from the 44% decrease registered in the first quarter.