Owner of Romanian group InterAgro outpaces mining tycoon to become richest Romanian in local ranking

Romania's richest man has an estimated wealth of EUR 1.7 billion, according to the most recent ranking of the country's wealthiest by local business publication Capital. Romanian entrepreneur Ioan Niculae, the owner of agro-industrial group InterAgro, controls this wealth which has sent him to number one in the rankings this year, outpacing mining tycoon Frank Timis, who was last year the richest Romanian. Niculae, who is also among the Forbes international richest in the world, is also the only billionaire in euro in the recently launched Top 300 Capital. He is followed by hotel owner Dan Adamescu, with a wealth of EUR 900 million, and by former tennis player Ion Tiriac, with an estimated wealth of EUR 850 million. Fourth place came the owner of RCS&RDS Zoltan Teszari, the Romanian entrepreneur whom very few people can recognize as he stays away from all public events. His wealth was estimated at some EUR 700 million. Dinu Patriciu, a former number one in rich rankings for Romania, went down to number 15 this year. The wealth of the 300 Romanians included in the ranking total EUR 21.5 billion this year, a drop of EUR 5 billion on 2012, and the perspective is not rosy: wealth is expected to further go down next year as well overall. Niculae's InterAgro runs business in several fields, including chemical industry, energy, agriculture, tobacco and tourism. The Top 300 Capital will be on sale starting November 18. editor@romania-insider.com