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ENERGY

Zara founder Amancio Ortega enters renewable energy sector

Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, founder of the biggest fast fashion group in the world, has entered the renewable energy sector with the purchase of a stake in a wind farm run by energy giant Repsol.

Amancio Ortega
Amancio Ortega is the founder of Inditex, which includes flagship store Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Uterqüe and Lefties. Photo: Miguel Riopa

Ortega’s investment holding Pontegadea will pay €245 million euros ($281 million) for a 49 percent stake in the Delta wind farm in the northern province of Zaragoza, Repsol said in a statement Thursday.

Opened in March, the wind farm will produce 992 gigawatt hours (GWh) of 100 percent renewable energy a year, the equivalent to the average annual consumption of 300,000 households, the Spanish firm added.

Pontegadea chief executive Roberto Cibeira said the deal “strengthens the environmental commitment that accompanies all the activities in our portfolio”.

Ortega’s investment holding in 2019 bought a five percent stake in Spanish gas grid operator Enagas, and it owns a five percent stake in Spanish electricity grid operator Red Electrica.

This is Pontegadea’s first operation in the renewables sector.

Demand for renewable energy assets has soared in recent years, with investors spending billions of dollars to gain exposure to the sector as governments promote low-carbon energy and crack down on fossil fuels to fight global warming.

Ortega’s Pontegadea owns a 59.3 percent stake in Zara owner Inditex, as well as investments worth billions of euros in prime office and shopping districts.

These are largely debt-free purchases using dividend payouts from Inditex.

Pontegadea’s global real estate empire includes offices used by Facebook and Amazon in Seattle and large swathes of London’s Oxford Street.

Amancio Ortega is the founder of Inditex, the biggest fashion group in the world, which includes flagship store Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Uterqüe and Lefties.

Now 85, he became a billionaire and Spain’s richest man at 65 when Inditex was listed in 2001. Funds from the flotation were used to set up Pontegadea, which is structured as a private limited company.

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BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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