Serbia is a growing destination for non-residents to set up companies and acquire residency. Serbia’s attractiveness is due to the fact that the process is relatively straightforward, the nation is located in Europe, it is integrated with SEPA, and it offers affordable living and hiring costs. Its capital, Belgrade, is home to many digital nomads and entrepreneurs. But what about the homegrown richest people in the region?
The Forbes list of the 100 richest people shows that the number of billionaires has decreased slightly, with their total wealth experiencing fluctuations due to market changes. Some wealthy individuals from the former Yugoslavian republics remain on the list, with the “insurance king” from Croatia, Dubravko Grgić (Agram Group), holding a personal fortune of 2.84 billion euros.
The Serbian and Balkan entrepreneurs have made their fortunes in agriculture, import and export, insurance, brokerage services, and trade. However, analysts say that new prospering industries, such as telecommunication technologies and the IT sector, promise a sharp increase in the amount of capital and the number of wealthy people in Serbia in this niche.
For reference, in 2025, non-residents can freely establish a company in Serbia and obtain a residence permit. The business elite from abroad remains active in the Balkans and European markets, leveraging the country’s real estate and investment opportunities
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The Wealthiest People in 2025 According to Forbes
According to Forbes, the 100 wealthiest people in the former Yugoslavia have a combined fortune of roughly €71 billion. Serbian billionaires (48 individuals) hold about €33 billion in total, while 27 Croatian billionaires have fortunes amounting to €25 billion. According to the weekly magazine from Serbia, Nedeljnik in 2024, which published a list of their own of the richest people in Serbia, the country and former Yugoslavia feature 100 billionaires, with a combined wealth of around 69 billion euros, of which Serbian billionaires hold 33 billion euros.
Representatives of the elite in many countries participate in the competition for leadership and the title of the best and the wealthiest billionaire.
Globally, as of September 2025, Larry Ellison briefly surpassed Elon Musk to become the world’s richest person. This shift occurred following a dramatic surge in Oracle’s stock price, which rose nearly 36% in a single day due to a significant $300 billion AI cloud deal with OpenAI. Ellison’s net worth peaked at approximately $393 billion during this period. This lead was short-lived. By September 11, 2025, Elon Musk reclaimed the top spot, with a net worth of $384 billion, while Ellison’s fortune was estimated at $383 billion.
Top 5 Wealthiest Serbs in 2025
Serbia has its own competition for leadership among wealthy people, where the two largest entrepreneurs, Miroslav Miskovic and Miodrag Kostic, have “shared the throne” in business for decades. Following the research and evaluation of the fortune possessed by the wealthy Serbian people, the difference between the two leaders by the amount of assets made up just 196,000 euros in 2023.
Here is the top 5 of the wealthiest Serbs in 2025:
- Miodrag Kostic – the owner of MK Group, with assets amounting to €2.78 billion euros. He started his business decades ago and built it into one of the largest conglomerates in Serbia. The renowned businessman has taken first place among the Balkan region billionaires for the second year in succession and is the richest man in Serbia.
- Miroslav Miskovic – the owner of the firm Delta Holding, with a fortune reaching €2.78 euros. Delta Holding operates across multiple sectors, including financial services, import/export, leasing operations, and real estate. Just like his competitor, Miodrag Kostic, Miroslav has an agricultural business and additionally receives profit from export, import, representation of foreign companies, distribution of consumer goods, sales of cars, real estate development, and research in the area of new technologies. Delta Holding has five organizational units, including in the world market.
- Petar Matijević is the owner of Industrija mesa Matijević, a production and trade company whose main activity is the production and sale of meat and meat products. The total net worth in 2023 is 1,597,272 euros. The company unites 106 agricultural enterprises, trade structures, real estate and public catering organizations. Matijević Agrar works about 37,000 hectares of agricultural land in the territory of Vojvodina and about 2,500 hectares in Croatia.
- Dejan Cirovik and Jadranka Stepanovic are the owners of the Mozzart company, which is worth about 1,353,004,180 euros according to estimates. The company specializes in sports bets and gambling in Southeast Europe. The business has been constantly expanding from the day of its foundation in 2001, and it now has about 1,000 payment points on the market of Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Croatia, Malta, Romania, Kenya, Colombia, Ghana, and Nigeria.
- Dragan Šolak is a wealthy Serb who founded the United Group with a net worth of 1,335,800,000 euros. A small cable company was gradually expanding its activity, and in 2012 it acquired cable operators, platforms for media content production, and suppliers of mobile communication services.
In the wider region, for example, in Croatia, Dubravko Grgić, often called the king of insurance, leads the ranking with a personal fortune of 2.84 billion euros. In Albania, Samir Mane, founder of the BALFIN Group, a diversified investment company with interests in retail, real estate, and banking and has an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.You can read more information about Serbia on our portal. We recommend taking a look at our services in Serbia and reaching your goals with the support of qualified experts on our international portal.
10 May 2023 