Hungarian entrepreneur Lőrinc Mészáros has kept his top position among the country’s top 100 wealthiest people with the 56-year-old’s estimated fortune increasing by 60 billion to 480 billion Hungarian forints (€1.22 billion), this year’s Top 100 list shows.
Mészáros, whose small gas plumbing service had been struggling in the early 2000s, began his meteoric rise in 2010, making it onto the top 100 list in 88th place in 2013 and placing fifth with a fortune of 120 billion Hungarian forints (€306 million) by 2017.
Second on the list is Sándor Csányi, president of Hungary’s largest bank OTP, with a fortune of 420 billion Hungarian forints (€1.06 billion), unchanged from last year. There was only one change in the top three: machine parts manufacturer Zsolt Felcsuti rose to third with a net worth of 345 billion Hungarian forints (€877 million), pushing György Gattyán, the founder of sex streaming service Livejasmin, down one position.
This year, only four newcomers made it onto the top 100: economist Kamilla Hermann, co-owner of Indotek Group (47th), facility management entrepreneur Ferenc Kis-Szölgyémi (71st), building materials maker Balázs Ács (90th), and solar systems entrepreneur Roland Lugos (92nd).
The estimated combined net worth of Hungary’s 100 wealthiest individuals is 6.2 trillion Hungarian forints (€15.8 billion) or about 9 percent of the country’s GDP.
