Banco Santander has nearly doubled its money on a real estate portfolio after agreeing to sell 10 properties to Spain's richest man. The sale comes less than a week after the Spanish lender became the first member of the consortium that acquired ABN Amro last month to offload one of the Dutch group's assets.

Santander said in a statement today it has sold the property portfolio to two units of Grupo Pontegadea, which is controlled by Amancio Ortega, chairman of fashion distributor Inditex whose stable of brands includes Zara.