Three Spanish brands in the Forbes top 100

This year Forbes welcomes one more Spanish company to the list of 100 most valued brands in the world.

BBVA, a diversified international financial group, together with Zara and Santander are valued at just over $25 billion ($6.8 billion, $10.7 billion and $8 billion respectively). Whilst Santander (founded 1857) and Zara (1974) have been featured on the Forbes list for the last 5 years now, for BBVA it is the first time on the red carpet. BBVA is a comparative youngster - is still only a twenty-something-year-old firm but its value since last year has already gone up by 13% allowing it to be placed 94th above brands such as Philips and Prada.

Santander, classified as the second most powerful Spanish brand, ranks 72nd in the list, ahead of Volkswagen (77th), Canon (84th), and Boeing (89th).

And then there is ZARA which was once “a tiny dress shop in Spain”.

Founded only just over 40 years ago, in 1974, by Amancio Ortega and his then partner Rosalia Mera, Zara (53rd) is part of the Inditex Group, the largest fashion empire worldwide which owns chains such as Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull&Bear and Stradivarius. Zara’s value as a brand has increased 13% in the last year and beats well-known global names including Lexus (63rd), Rolex (64th) and Porsche (67th); it sits on the list just behind eBay.

79-year-old Ortega has now 6,900 stores open globally and his net worth is at $66.8 billion. A primary-school dropout Ortega is now the 2nd richest man in the world and he is as humble as one can get - routinely eating lunch with his employees in the company cafeteria and sticking to a simple uniform of a white shirt and blue blazer. Wonder why you never see him in the media? he is fiercely private and absolutely press-averse.

Spain and the Spanish have traditionally been very bad at telling the rest of the world how good they can be. Asset Folio and its partners want to change this and tell everyone who will listen about the great opportunities, business, lifestyle, investments and products here that are internationally renowned but unapologetically and beautifully Spanish.