Zara founder Ortega buys Dutch warehouse for $115 million

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega, the founder of Zara owner Inditex, has bought a warehouse in the Netherlands for 105 million euros ($115.4 million), his private investment firm Pontegadea said on Wednesday.

The purchase, first reported by real estate website React News and later confirmed by a Pontegadea spokesperson, marks Ortega's foray into the European logistics sector after spending over $1 billion on distribution centres across the United States last year.

The warehouse is located in the southeastern city of Venlo - located on the banks of the river Meuse near the German border - and spans 103,000 square meters (1.1 million square feet), the spokesperson added.

The transaction comes after the 87-year-old billionaire acquired a building in central London that formerly housed offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for about $105 million in April, as well as a luxury residential building in Dublin for $108 million in March.

Pontegadea's buying sprees in recent years have included multiple residential and office buildings in Britain, the U.S. and Canada as part of a strategy to expand and diversify a vast real estate portfolio worth over 15 billion euros in 2021.

($1 = 0.9102 euro)

(Reporting by Corina Pons; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)