Romania's richest lose EUR 18.5 bln during crisis

The wealth of Romania's billionaires listed in the most recent Forbes ranking has gone down by EUR 3.6 billion on last year and by 18.5 billion since the crisis hit. Romanian businessman Ioan Niculae, who owns the Interagro group, ranks first this year, with a wealth estimated at EUR 1.1 billion, up from the third place last year. Second in the ranking came Frank Timis, with a wealth estimated at some EUR 950 million. Timis invests in the mineral resources area, via his company Africa Minerals. He also also second place last year. Dinu Patriciu, who was top of the list last year, came third this year. Patriciu, with a wealth of some EUR 900 million, used to own the company which published the Forbes top, but recently sold his media business. Next in the ranking come Dan Grigore Adamescu, the owner of Unirea Shopping Center and other businesses, Ion Tiriac - who owns Tiriac Auto, Tiriac Imobiliare and everything else 'Tiriac', Gabriel Comanescu, owner of Upetrom group, and Veronica Dragan, the owner of ButanGas. Gruia Stoica comes next, the owner of Grampet group, then Dorinel Umbrarescu, owner of construction company Spedition UMB, and Zoltan Teszari, the owner of RCS & RDS telecom company. The total value of the wealth of Romania's 500 richest people included in the Forbes ranking is at some EUR 21.5 billion, down from EUR 40 billion in 2008. editor@romania-insider.com