Zara owner named world's second-richest person

London - Spanish retail magnate Amancio Ortega is now worth 71.5 billion dollars, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and has taken second place in the ranking of the world’s richest people for the first time.

Ortega, who owns 59 percent of Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer which runs chains including Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, and Pull and Bear, has found himself ahead of Warren Buffett’s 70.2 billion dollar wealth for the first time, but still behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who remains the world's richest person, worth 85.5 billion dollars.

The Zara owner has seen his fortune grow by 10.4 billion dollars, or 17 percent in the past year, helped by the success of Inditex but also his property holdings, as he has office and retail properties in most major cities in Europe and the US, according to Bloomberg.

Chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Bernard Arnault could only manage 13th spot on the ranking, however his wealth also increased in the past year by 5.7 billion dollars to 36.8 billion dollars, and he was named France’s richest man.