This article will look at the 29 wealthiest people in Spain.
Spain’s Booming Economy
Spain is the 15th-largest economy in the world and the 6th-largest economy in Europe, with a population of 48.38 million. According to the IMF, the country’s GDP is projected to reach $1.65 trillion as of 2024, driven by services, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors. The major driver, however, is the services sector due to Spain’s large tourism and financial services industries.
On July 3, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism for Spain reported that the country received 33 million international travelers in only the first five months of 2024. This was 13.6% higher than tourists received in the same period last year. In May, it was reported that tourists were spending an average of 1,263 euros, which was 7.3% higher than what they spent in May 2023. The daily spending by tourists also averaged 204 euros, which was 8.6% higher than last May. This increased tourism spending suggests a thriving local economy which implies stable economic growth for Spain.
On June 11, Reuters reported that the strong performance of the tourism sector resulted in the bank of Spain raising its economic growth forecasts to 2.3% for 2024, up from the prior estimate of 1.9%. Simultaneously, IMF also updated its GDP growth projections for Spain to 1.9% from 1.5% for this year.
The Financial Sector
Spain’s financial services industry is also a top contributor to the country’s GDP and growth. In 2021, the finance and insurance services industry of Spain contributed about 3.8% to the country’s GDP, according to estimates by iBerotech. As of 2022, Banco Santander S.A. ADR (NYSE:SAN) is one of the largest banks in the eurozone. In Europe, it has four banks – in the UK, Portugal, Poland, and Spain, with headquarters in Spain. It also has branches in the Americas. The bank offers private banking, investment banking, and asset management, among other financial services. The annual revenue for Banco Santander S.A. ADR (NYSE:SAN) in 2023 was $49.4 billion and it had $48.39 billion in net interest income.
Banco Santander S.A. ADR (NYSE:SAN) is working on strengthening its consumer finance business and offerings. On June 21, Bloomberg reported an upcoming consumer-finance partnership between Banco Santander S.A. ADR (NYSE:SAN) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) across Europe, citing unnamed sources. The partnership would entail offering easy financing options to its European customers to facilitate consumer purchases. A similar digital consumer-finance partnership was signed with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on June 10, however the Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) partnership is expected to be bigger than that.
On June 25, Bloomberg also reported that Banco Santander S.A. ADR (NYSE:SAN) found a way to use Spain’s tourism industry to clear its debts and improve its financial health. Due to increased property prices, the bank is looking to sell some of its commercial property assets, which are present in tourist areas of the country. Banco Santander S.A. ADR (NYSE:SAN) already sold hotel loans valued at around $321 million to credit investor Polus Capital Management. The bank is also considering selling other commercial real estate assets, including office buildings and hotels, which is expected to be of a similar size to the hotel loan sale.
29 Wealthiest People in Spain
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the 30 wealthiest people in Spain, we consulted the real-time billionaires data from Forbes and ranked the wealthiest people in Spain in ascending order of their net worths, as of June 28.
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29 Wealthiest People in Spain
29. Helena Revoredo
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.2B
Helena Revoredo is the chair of Prosegur, a Spanish private security company. The company was founded by her late husband, Herberto Gut in 1976. The CEO of the company is her son, Christian. Her daughter Chantal Gut sits on the board.
Revoredo also established the Prosegur Foundation, which promotes education and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.
28. Gabriel Escarrer & family
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.2B
Gabriel Escarrer founded Melia Hotels International at 21, one of the world’s largest hotel chains with more than 350 hotels and resorts in 35 countries. In 2023, he resigned as the chairman and was succeeded by his son Gabriel Escarrer Jaume. Escarrer owns nearly 54% of Melia Hotels International.
27. Vicente Boluda Fos
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.2B
Vicente Boluda Fos is the owner of Boluda Corporacion Maritima, which is the second-largest towage company in the world. The company was founded in 1837 and expanded to tugboats in 1920 under his grandfather. Boluda Fos took over the firm in 1982 and expanded it internationally.
He also owns a stake in Bodegas Fos, which is a winery in the Rioja Alavesa region of Spain’s Basque Country.
26. Alberto Alcocer
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.3B
Alberto Alcocer gets most of his wealth from shares in the construction company ACS, which is led by billionaire Florentino Pérez.
He and his billionaire cousin Alberto Cortina ran their ex-wives’ constructions and contracts firm from the early 1970s to 1989, until the marriages fell apart. Alcocer and his cousin then moved into banking, running Banco Zaragozano. They sold their combined 40% stake to Barclays in 2004.
25. Jose Maria Aristrain
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.3B
Jose Maria Aristrain is the former owner of steelmaker Arcelor, which was later acquired by Mittal Steel in 2006 for nearly $34 billion in cash and stock. He inherited the business when he was 24 years old.
He now owns a 2% stake in ArcelorMittal, and about 11% of Spain’s Tubacex, the second-largest global manufacturer of seamless stainless steel tubes.
24. Manuel Lao Hernández & family
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.3B
Manuel Lao Hernandez founded Cirsa, a multinational casino company. He started the business in 1978 and expanded it to nine countries in Latin America and Europe. He sold it to Blackstone in 2018 for an estimated $2.6 billion but still owns Cirsa’s Argentina operations.
23. Juan Maria Riberas Mera
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.4B
Juan María Riberas Mera and his billionaire brother Francisco each own around 25% of listed auto parts firm Gestamp Automocion.
Their late father, Francisco Riberas Pampliega, founded a small steel trading company, Gonvarri, in 1958, which over two decades became one of Spain’s largest steel companies. Juan Maria himself started at the company in a junior management position in 1992
22. Alberto Cortina
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.4B
Alberto Cortina’s wealth mostly comes from the construction company ACS, which is headed by another billionaire Florentino Pérez.
He and his billionaire cousin Alberto Alcocer ran their ex-wives’ constructions and contracts firm from the early 1970s to 1989, until both of their marriages fell apart. After that, Alcocer and Cortina moved into banking, running Banco Zaragozano. They sold their combined 40% stake to Barclays in 2004.
21. Francisco Jose Riberas Mera
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.4B
Francisco José Riberas Mera and his billionaire brother Juan Maria each own around 25% of listed auto parts firm Gestamp Automocion. Francisco is also the executive chairman of Gestamp Automocion. The brothers are known to be the largest shareholders of Madrid-listed car components maker CIE Automotive.
20. Carmen Thyssen
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.5B
Carmen Thyssen inherited her wealth from her late husband in 2002. Her husband, Hans Thyssen-Bornemisza was an heir to a German industrial fortune. She was a former Miss Spain and his fifth wife.
She owns an art collection being exhibited at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. The collection is valued at more than $1 billion by the Spanish government.
19. Carmen Daurella Aguilera
Net Worth as of July 11: $1.5B
Carmen Daurella owns nearly 4% of bottling company Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, which is the largest independent Coke bottler by revenue. Her billionaire cousin Sol Daurella, is the chair of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. Her husband, Mario Rotllant Sola, is a member of the board of the company.
18. Fernando Roig
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.1B
Fernando Roig owns a ceramics firm Pamesa, along with a 9% stake in Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona. His brother Juan Roig, also a billionaire, is the majority shareholder of Mercadona.
Mercadona was founded by their parents in 1977. Juan and Fernando took over the company with their sisters in 1981 when it was only an eight-store chain. Now it is Europe’s largest food retailer, with nearly 1,700 supermarkets.
Fernando also owns the professional soccer team Villarreal C.F. of Spain.
17. Fernando Masaveu Herrero
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.1B
Fernando Masaveu Herrero is the fifth-generation owner of Corporacion Masaveu, a Spanish conglomerate founded in 1840, that has been family-run ever since. Corporacion Masaveu deals in industrial cement factories and renewable energy to real estate, finance, health, wineries, and car-parks.
He is currently the chairman of the company and is the president of the family’s philanthropic foundation. Masaveu Herrero also owns significant individual stakes in other Spanish companies, together with investments in Portugal and the U.S.
16. Alberto Palatchi
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.1B
Alberto Palatchi inherited a store from his parents in 1964 and turned it into Pronovias, one of the biggest wedding dress companies globally. Pronovia wedding dresses are sold in more than 105 countries.
In 2017, he sold 90% of the company to British private equity firm BC Partners for an estimated $550 million. He also has more than $1.1 billion invested in a Spanish investment fund. Palatchi also invested in art and U.S. and European stocks.
15. Miguel Fluxa Rossello
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.1B
Fluxa Rossello is the executive chairman of Grupo Iberostar, one of Europe’s largest hotel companies. In 2017, the company generated over $2.9 billion in revenues.
Iberostar Group started back in the 9th century when the Fluxa family started a footwear business in Majorca, Spain. In 1986, Miguel joined the family company and founded its first hotels in Majorca and the Canary Islands. Later in 2006, he sold the company’s tour operator and travel agency divisions to the Carlyle Group for $950 million.
14. D. Leopoldo Del Pino
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.2B
Leopoldo del Pino y Calvo Sotelo inherited a stake in Ferrovial S.A., Spain’s largest infrastructure construction and management company.
His late father founded the company in 1952. Later in 2008, Leopoldo’s two siblings also inherited stakes in Ferrovial. Leopoldo’s brother Rafael del Pino is the current chairman and co-CEO of the company. Leopoldo owns about 4% of Ferrovial and served as a board member until early 2016.
13. Juan Abello
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.5B
Juan Abelló sold his family’s pharmaceutical company in the 1980s to put the money into a variety of investments. Now he owns a stake in for-profit education company Laureate Education, as well as a piece of Prestige Motor Holdings, the largest shareholder of car maker Aston Martin.
He also collects art, including the works of Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya, El Greco, Edgar Degas, Salvador Dali, and Vincent van Gogh.
12. Sol Daurella
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.7B
Sol Daurella is the chairwoman of the world’s largest Coke bottling company, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. She owns about 7% of the company. Her family’s ties to Coca-Cola began in 1951 when they were awarded a bottling license.
11. Florentino Perez
Net Worth as of July 11: $2.8B
Florentino Perez has run Spain’s largest construction company Grupo ACS since 1997 and owns a nearly 13% stake in the company. He also runs a popular Spanish soccer team Real Madrid. He is the president of Real Madrid and boosted advertising and merchandise revenues in his first tenure as president from 2000 to 2006.
10. Tomas Olivo Lopez
Net Worth as of July 11: $3.1B
Tomas Olivo Lopez owns almost all of General de Galerias Comerciales, a shopping center chain in Spain.
He began buying land outside of Marbella in the 1990s and built his first shopping mall, Parque Comercial La Canada. Later, the company developed six shopping malls in the Andalucia and Catalonia regions of the country.
9. Alicia Koplowitz
Net Worth as of July 11: $3.1B
Alicia Koplowitz inherited a stake in the Spanish construction company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, in the early 1960s, after her father died. She later sold her stake to sister Esther for $800 million in 1997 and put the money into investments. She’s invested in steelmaker Acerinox, electric utility Iberdrola, and Banco Sabadell.
She owns hotels in Italy and Miami, and real estate in the U.S. Koplowitz also has a stake in Hospes, a Spanish luxury hotel chain. She also runs a charitable foundation that sends Spanish fellows to study child psychiatry in England and the U.S.
8. Hortensia Herrero
Net Worth as of July 11: $3.3B
Hortensia Herrero owns about 28% of Mercadona, the Spanish supermarket chain she helped build with her billionaire husband Juan Roig. She’s currently the vice president. Herrero and Roig’s four daughters are board members of Mercadona. Her husband’s billionaire brother Fernando is also a shareholder.
7. Maria Del Pino
Net Worth as of July 11: $3.4B
Maria del Pino inherited her 9% stake in Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial SE from her late father. Her father founded the company in 1952. Her brother Rafael del Pino is the chairman currently and also its largest individual shareholder.
Maria del Pino has been a member of the board of Ferrovial. She is now the chairman of the family’s charitable foundation, Fundación Del Pino.
6. Daniel Mate
Net Worth as of July 11: $3.5B
Daniel Mate is the former head of zinc at commodities giant Glencore. He rose to co-directing in 2000 but retired in July 2020.
Mate had joined Glencore in 1988 when it was still known as Marc Rich & Co. in Switzerland. Six years later the firm was bought out by management and changed its name.
5. Isak Andic & family
Net Worth as of July 11: $4.3B
Isak Andic is the founder and chairman of the clothing retailer Mango. His son, Jonathan Andic, sits on the company’s Board of Directors.
The international business of the company makes up about three-quarters of its revenue. It has over 2,100 stores in 110 countries today. Andic opened his first clothing store in Barcelona in 1984 and took the company international in 1992.
4. Juan Roig
Net Worth as of July 11: $5.7B
Juan Roig is president and majority owner of supermarket giant Mercadona, the biggest grocer in Spain. Roig, together with his three siblings and wife Hortensia Herrero, bought the chain in 1981.
In 1981 the company only had 8 stores. But by 2006, it had opened its 1000th store.
3. Rafael Del Pino
Net Worth as of July 11: $6.3B
Rafael Del Pino y Calvo-Sotelo is the chairman of the Spanish infrastructure operator and construction firm Ferrovial, founded by his father in 1952. He owns about 20% of Ferrovial’s shares. His billionaire sister, Maria Del Pino y Calvo-Sotelo, is the second largest shareholder.
2. Sandra Ortega Mera
Net Worth as of July 11: $10B
Sandra Ortega Mera is the daughter of Amancio Ortega, who cofounded Inditex, widely known for its Zara retail chain. She inherited her wealth from her late mother, Rosalia Mera, co-founder of Inditex. She is the second-richest person in Spain after her father and holds roughly a 4.5% stake in Indite.
However, she is not actively involved in the company. She engages with Fundación Paideia, the nonprofit her mother started that supports vocational training for people with disabilities. She also owns a 4.5% stake in the pharma company PharmaMar, which specializes in anticancer drugs.
1. Amancio Ortega
Net Worth as of July 11: $112.4B
Amancio Ortega is the wealthiest person in Spain and one of the wealthiest clothing retailers in the world. He co-founded the clothing giant Inditex, known for its Zara retail chain, with his late ex-wife Rosalia Mera. He owns about 60% of the company, which has 8 brands in total.
He has invested his dividends primarily into real estate in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Chicago, Miami, and New York. Ortega earns more than $400 million in dividends per year.
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