Sandi Češko, who has made his fortune through a group of home shopping companies Studio Moderna, has dethroned retail magnate Mirko Tuš as the richest Slovenian, a survey published annually by the Manager magazine shows.
Cesko more than doubled his fortune to an estimated EUR 205m to climb from 4th spot, where he was replaced by Mirko Tus (EUR 100m), who had topped the list of the 100 Richest Slovenians since its first release in 2007.
Studio Moderna is expanding fast and has attracted foreign investors such as JH Partners, Templeton, Insight Partners and General Atlantic, which paid EUR 25m for a 10% stake in the company, Manager reports.
Second on the list remains Igor Lah, who made money on privatisation vouchers during Slovenia's transition to market economy. His wealth is estimated at EUR 129m.
However, the top five also include two newcomers, both couples. Albin and Tatjana Dobersek in third set up an engineering company in Germany in the early 1980s.
Engineering Dobersek was spotted by Manager analysts because of its involvement in the construction of a new generator at the Sostanj coal-fired power plant TES. The Doberseks fortune is estimated at EUR 119m.
Samo and Iza Login, in 4th spot, made a fortune worth around EUR 80m in just a year through the IT company Outfit7, the author of Talking Friends, one of the best selling iPhone applications in the world.
According to Manager, Outfit7 phone and tablet applications were downloaded by more than 150 million users between July 2010 and July 2011.
Standing out by the speed with which he increased his wealth is Uros Merc from the photovoltaic modules producer Bisol, whom it took four years to make it to the list, while now two Bisol owners are listed among the richest.
About one fourth of the wealthy listed are newcomers, while seven made their way back after dropping out. The list ends at around EUR 11m.
Although the combined wealth of the 100 richest remains at about the same level as last year (EUR 2.5bn), there are more of those whose assets shrunk, newcomers excluded.
Many of those who dropped out are owners of construction companies, including Ivan Zidar of SCT.
Ivo Boscarol, the owner of plane maker Pipistrel, did not make it to the list this year because the company nearly halved its profits despite higher revenues as it focuses on internal reorganisation.
The list meanwhile includes two mayors: Ljubljana's Zoran Jankovic with his sons, and Miran Vuk of Zavrc.
Source: The Slovenia Times
