Patriciu out, Ioan Niculae in Forbes rich list, again leaves Romania with one billionaire

It's one out, one in for Romania in the new Forbes billionaires list. After a year in which he has been in the headlines for his businesses and his marriage failing, Dinu Patriciu, a regular in the annual Forbes ranking of billionaires, is out. Ioan Niculae (in picture, right), with an estimated fortune of USD 1.1 billion has rejoined the Forbes billionaires and is Romania's only representative on the list.

“Ioan Niculae returns to the Forbes Billionaires list with soaring sales at Interagro, the agricultural and fertilizer conglomerate he founded,” wrote Forbes, which also reports that he has invested nearly USD 50 million in a co-generation plant to “reduce energy costs and begin to resell excess capacity.” Local media reports at the time suggested a lower figure, some EUR 21 million. Power unit at Romanian fertilizer plant commissioned Romania's only Forbes billionaire owns a private airplane operator and enjoys hunting, according to Forbes. He ranks 1268th, a long with a number of other billionaires with an estimated USD 1.1 billion fortune. The three richest people are Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecommunications tycoon, Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder from the US, and Amancio Ortega of Spain, who founded and runs fashion chain Zara. According to Forbes, their fortunes value USD 73 billion, USD 67 billion and USD 57 billion. The World's Billionaires editor@romania-insider.com