Amancio Ortega buys the Royal Bank Plaza skyscraper in Toronto

Toronto's Royal Bank Plaza skyscraper Stephanie Foden (Bloomberg)

The founder and main shareholder of Inditex, Amancio Ortega, has reached an agreement to buy the Royal Bank Plaza skyscraper in Toronto from two Canadian pension funds for around 961 million US dollars (843 million euros).

The sale of the iconic gold-clad tower in the heart of Canada's financial capital is among the largest transactions for an office building globally since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.

The sale has been carried out by Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of the Ontario pension fund for municipal workers, and the investment board of the Canada Pension Plan.

A representative of Ortega's family office confirmed the transaction to the Bloomberg agency.

The funds put the property up for sale last year and were seeking to raise at least C $ 1 billion for it, a goal that has seen the final price - about C $ 1.2 billion - according to a person familiar with the matter. She spoke in exchange for not being identified.

The founder of Inditex, who thus begins the new year by expanding his property portfolio, invests part of the dividends he receives from the textile company in the real estate sector through his investment firm Pontegadea Inmobiliaria.

This is not the first purchase made by Pontegadea in Canada, as in 2016 the company acquired a historic building on one of Montreal's main shopping streets for around 29 million euros, while in 2014 it bought another property in Toronto.

Ortega owns the largest Spanish real estate company, focused on the sale and rental of large buildings, with a portfolio of real estate assets mainly made up of non-residential office buildings, located in the center of large cities in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Asia. .