Dinu Patriciu is the richest Romanian, with an estimated wealth of 1.9-2 billion euros, according to the team which compiled the Adevarul 500 Billionaires ranking, launched by the Adevarul Holding media trust, which belongs to Patriciu, Ziarul Financiar reported.

Another listing, dubbed Top 300 Richest Romanians, presented by the Capital team, shows Gheorghe “Gigi” Becali as the richest Romanian, with a fortune estimated to be similar to last year’s, at 3 billion euros. Third place goes to Ion Tiriac, with 950 million - 1 billion euros, while a close fourth is Zoltan Teszari, owner of the RCS&RDS cable and telephony company, with 900 million euros.

Top 5 is completed by Marius and Emilian Cristescu, which control Bega Group, with 0.85 billion euro closely followed by media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vantu with 0.85 billion euro

The combined fortunes of the 500 richest Romanians identified by Adevarul total over 39 billion euros, or one third of Romania’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Not surprisingly, Bucharest claims the largest number of Romania’s richest, a total of 201, who together share some 21.8-22.7 billion euros. The Transylvanian region is home to 103 billionaires and millionaires, whose worth amounts to 6 billion euros.