The Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people shows that the number of billionaires dropped by 87 people, and their wealth decreased by 400 billion dollars. The wealthy people from the former Yugoslavian republics are also on the list, with the “insurance king” from Croatia, Dubravko Grgic (Agram Group) with a personal fortune of 2.84 billion euros, being the leader.
Miodrag Kostic, the owner of MK Group
The Serbian and Balkan entrepreneurs have made their fortunes in agriculture, import and export, insurance, brokerage services, and trade. However, analysts say that new prospering industries, such as telecommunication technologies and the IT sector, promise a sharp increase in the amount of capital and the number of wealthy people in Serbia in this niche.
For reference: in 2023, non-residents can freely establish a company in Serbia and obtain a residence permit. The business elite of foreign countries is active in the Balkans and on the European market and makes profitable use of the country’s real estate and demand for it as an investment product.
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The Wealthiest People in 2023 According to Forbes
According to the rating, the 100 wealthiest people in the region (the former Yugoslavia) have a total fortune of 69 billion euros. The Serbian billionaires (48 persons) have 33 billion euros in total, and 27 billionaires from Croatia have a fortune that amounts to 24 billion euros.
Representatives of the elite in many countries participate in the competition for leadership and the title of the best and the wealthiest billionaire, with first place being taken by the Frenchman Bernard Arnault and his family. The maximum number of top billionaires in 2023 was taken by US natives. No Serbs have been listed on the top 25.
Top 5 Wealthiest Serbs in 2023
Serbia has its own competition for leadership among wealthy people where the two largest entrepreneurs, Miroslav Miskovic and Miodrag Kostic, have “shared the throne” in business for decades. Following the research and evaluation of the fortune possessed by the wealthy Serbian people, the difference between the two leaders by the amount of assets made up just 196,000 euros in 2023.
The Top 5 of the wealthiest Serbs in 2023 looks as follows:
- Miodrag Kostic – the owner of MK Group, with assets amounting to 2,779,323,438 euros. The entrepreneur has taken first place among the Balkan region billionaires for the second year in succession and is the wealthiest person in Serbia.
- Miroslav Miskovic – the owner of Delta Holding, with a fortune reaching 2,779,127,103 euros, Serbia. Just like his competitor Miodrag Kostic, Miroslav has an agricultural business and additionally receives profit from export, import, representation of foreign companies, distribution of consumer goods, sales of cars, real estate development, and research in the area of new technologies. Delta Holding has five organizational units, including on the world market.
- Petar Matijević is the owner of Industrija mesa Matijević, a production and trade company whose main activity is the production and sale of meat and meat products. The total net worth in 2023 is 1,597,272 euros. The company unites 106 agricultural enterprises, trade structures, real estate and public catering organizations. Matijević Agrar works about 37,000 hectares of agricultural land in the territory of Vojvodina and about 2,500 hectares in Croatia.
- Dejan Cirovik and Jadranka Stepanovic are the owners of Mozzart company which is worth about 1,353,004,180 euros according to estimates. The company specializes in sports bets and gambling in South-East Europe. The business has been constantly expanding from the day of its foundation in 2001, and it now has about 1,000 payment points on the market of Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Croatia, Malta, Romania, Kenya, Columbia, Ghana, and Nigeria.
- Dragan Šolak is a wealthy Serb that founded the United Group with a net worth of 1,335,800,000 euros. A small cable company was gradually expanding its activity, and in 2012 it acquired cable operators, platforms for media content production, and suppliers of mobile communication services.
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