Ten ethnic Hungarians have made it onto Capital Romania’s annual list of the country’s wealthiest men, with Zoltán Tészári remaining at the top of the listed Hungarians for the second consecutive year. His wealth is estimated to be about six times bigger than that of the Mudura family, ranked second in Capital’s top 300 annual list. Despite the growth, Tészári has dropped three positions compared to last year. The list below has the following format: Name (age), followed by wealth in euros.
1) Zoltán Tészári (49) 640–660 million
Tészári is an ethnic Hungarian millionaire whose life could be turned into a bestselling book or a great movie, according to Romanian news portal Capital. Their argument is that Tészári’s story is like a fairy tale: He was born into a poor family and after finishing his career as an athlete, he started doing business in the early 1990s and successfully built a corporation that is a key player in Europe’s telecommunication market. Digi is present in markets such as Romania, Hungary, Spain and Italy and has more than 14 million subscribers. Tészári’s wealth was enough to grab the sixth spot in Capital’s top 300 list.
2) Mudura family 99–104 million
The family’s wealth has grown since last year; however, they dropped one spot from Capital’s 2018 list. During the past period, the Mudura family finalized several important transactions on the real estate market and owns the Oradea Shopping City mall, along with the Lotus Center and the Lotus Retail Park.
3) Miklós Pálfy (61) 77–79 million
The wealth of Miklós Pálfy, vice-president of the Romaqua Group, increased compared to the previous year, by an estimated EUR 7 to 9 million, according to Capital’s report.
4) István Gadola (66) 39–41 million
The Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca-based businessman established the Energobit company with two partners, Pál Péter and Ioan Socea. They sold some of their shares to a Polish consortium several years ago. But after seeing that the new leadership was not performing as expected, they bought back the majority of their shares and returned to management. The company is still losing money, but performance indicators show that it is on the right path to becoming profitable.
5) Árpád Pászkány (48) 35–37 million
Pászkány is the sole shareholder of Romdevon Leasing and Ecomax General Investment, but he entered the spotlight when he acquired the CFR Cluj/Kolozsvár football club. The team had really good results, but Pászkány decided to sell his shares in 2014.
6) Ferenc Korponay (52) 27–30 million
The Máramaros/Maramures-born Ferenc Korponay has grown his wealth nicely during the past period. He became a businessman after he was dismissed from his job.
7) Levente Bara (43) 29–31 million
He became one of the most important businessmen in Fehér/Alba County after he sold his company, Suprema Group, to the French Solina Group for an estimated EUR 35 million.
8) Pár Péter (67) 26–28 million
Péter is co-founder of Energobit, along with István Gadola. Energobit controls 15 companies, including Energobit Prod and Energobit Screder Lighting. Péter is interested in the real estate market, and he also owns shares in Paprika Radio.
9) The Szász brothers 25–27 million
Safety equipment retailer Renania was founded by the Szász brothers in 1996. Seven years later, the company was among the biggest retailers in the Romanian market, and last year they recorded a revenue of EUR 23 million. According to Capital, Orlando Szász speaks four languages, and he is also a business angel. His brother, Roland Szász, owns the Vertiqual Engineering company, which sells safety equipment for high-altitude workers.
10) The Pál family 23–25 million
The Pál family founded the Melinda group, which currently has 600 employees and has moved 180 thousand tons of merchandise.
The wealthiest Romanians are Dragoş and Adrian Pavăl, the founders of Dedeman, with a wealth estimated at 2-2.1 billion euros
