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A mysterious retail guru most people have never heard of briefly surpassed Bill Gates to become the world's richest man

Oct 23, 2015, 21:31 IST
Business Insider

Getty Images / Xurxo Lobato

Zara's mysterious founder, Amancio Ortega, was the world's richest man, bypassing Bill Gates, on Friday morning, Forbes reports. His net worth peaked to $80 billion when Zara's parent company Intidex's stock peaked.

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But when the stock went back down, Ortega went back to being the world's second-richest man, a title he attained in June. That's no small feat - he is richer than Warren Buffet.

But despite his impressive net worth, many people have never heard of him.

The 79-year-old Spaniard fiercely guards his privacy and gives few interviews to the press.

Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Intidex SA - which owns Zara, as well as Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear - has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara in and of itself is changing retail forever.

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According to Bloomberg, Ortega's net worth is a whopping $71.5 billion as of June 2, 2015. The only person left for him to beat in this financial category? Bill Gates, who has a net worth of $85.5 billion. However, Bloomberg's data notes that since last year, Gates' net worth has decreased by $1.1 billion, while Ortega's has increased by an impressive $10.4 billion.

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