MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish billionaire and Zara founder Amancio Ortega has agreed to buy a landmark Canadian skyscraper for around 800 million euros ($916.88 million), according to his private office.
Pontegadea, the family office of the main shareholder of fashion group Inditex, on Thursday confirmed the deal to buy Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza, which was first reported by Bloomberg News in Canada.
Current owners Oxford Properties Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) hired RBC Capital Markets to explore a potential sale last September.
A landmark in Toronto’s financial district, the downtown office complex is home to leading banks, law firms and technology companies and covers some 1.5 million square feet across its two towers.
Oxford Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pontegadea has focused on investing in real-estate assets and textile distribution but recently became the largest private investor in Spain’s electricity grid operator Red Electrica, with a 5% stake, and also bought a 49% stake in a wind farm operated by Spanish energy group Repsol.
($1 = 0.8725 euros)
(Reporting by Corina Pons; Editing by Nathan Allen, Kirsten Donovan)
