At least four among the ten richest people in the Balkans region are from BiH. The total annual turnover of their companies is estimated at hundreds of millions of EUR, and some of them have businesses all across Europe and all over the world.
Nijaz Hastor, the owner of ASA Prevent Group, whose sons Kenan and Damir Hastor inherited his business empire, is the richest businessman from BiH. His family lives in Wolfsburg, and they are managing all of their companies from there.
Their last year’s revenue in BiH amounted to a total of 771 million BAM. Considering the fact that the Prevent group with its daughter companies is also present in Germany, Austria, Romania, Spain, Brazil, Hungary and Turkey, the real revenue of this group is a lot higher on the global level.
Most of other BH millionaires are traders.
The primary business of Tomislav Antunovic is trading with oil and oil derivatives. He got married when he was only 23 years old and went to Vienna. He drove trucks in the 1960’s, then he bought buses, and then dredges… He opened his first private gas pump in Brcko in 1987, in the former Yugoslavia.
Today, he owns two companies in Croatia, where the former president and his best friend Stjepan Mesic, helped him a lot. According to him, all the companies that he owns (gas stations, hotels, restaurants, department stores etc.) are recording annual sales of around one billion BAM in several countries.
Izudin Ahmetlic, the owner of HIFA Group, whose primary business is trading with oil and oil derivatives, is one of BH billionaires as well.
Ahmetlic, like numerous other businessmen, started diversifying his business, and he invested in agricultural production through ownership over the agricultural cooperative “Poljoprom” from Sanski Most. At the beginning of the year, HIFA OIL purchased LB.Profile GmbH, which is the German company with the longest tradition of producing profiles for doors and windows. Forbes estimated the total revenue of his companies at 681.3 million BAM on an annual basis.
Among the richest people in BiH is the owner of retail chain Bingo, Senad Dzambic. Bingo also has majority ownership in Majevica Ltd., a snack producer, which they took over when the company was in bankruptcy.
“Maybe I am one of the biggest businessmen, but I am not the richest for sure. And if those who are richer than me wanted to invest as much as I do, it would be better for everyone,” said the owner of “Bingo”. Forbes estimated his profit to 570.3 million BAM, but it is constantly increasing. Besides Majevica, Bingo also has a majority stake in ten more companies in BiH that are involved in doing business with real estate, clothing manufacturing, and waste, and they recently bought Dita Tuzla as well.
(Source: faktor.ba)
