Red Bull heir Mark Mateschitz is in second place with 35.8 billion euros. Far behind in third place is real estate and industrial investor Georg Stumpf with 8.6 billion euros. Signa founder Rene Benko was removed from the rich list.
Overall, the super-rich in Austria have not become richer. Their wealth stagnated at 210 billion euros last year. After record sales and earnings in 2022, business figures deteriorated last year. As a result, company valuations, which often make up the majority of assets, also came under pressure, reports “trend” in its current issue. The real estate market also weakened.
Signa founder Benko no longer involved
Following the bankruptcy of the real estate group, Signa founder Benko no longer appears on the “trend” rich list. Last year he was in 8th place with 4.2 billion euros. He is “probably still among the 100 richest Austrians, presumably somewhere beyond 70th place. But it cannot be verified how much is stashed in the foundations he and his mother founded,” writes the business magazine.
Helmut Sohnen and his family came in fourth place, owing their estimated fortune of 6.5 billion euros to a shipping company and the BW Group, according to the business magazine. In fifth place with 6 billion euros is Johann Graf, who is economically successful primarily with Novomatic and its slot machines, casinos and betting shops.
Helmut Rothenberger new in the list
Newly added to the list of Austro-billionaires is the German-Austrian citizen Helmut Rothenberger, who owes his fortune to the holding company of the same name.
In any case, wealth is distributed quite unequally in Austria. More than half of the net wealth of 1,884 billion euros belongs to the wealthiest 5 percent. If you add the wealth of the next 5 percent, almost two thirds of the net wealth is accounted for by the wealthiest 10 percent. The high concentration of wealth is also linked to economic stability, “trend” referred to the results of the Global Wealth Report of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Six heirs
The Momentum Institute, which is close to the trade unions, sees the unequal distribution of wealth as a key argument for introducing an inheritance tax. “According to the “trend” rich list, six of the ten richest people in Austria are heirs,” Momentum noted in a press release. “They got their wealth through luck in the birth lottery. Large inheritances concentrate wealth among the richest people in the country,” said Barbara Schuster, wealth expert at the Momentum Institute. “This further widens the gap between rich and poor.” Even taxing the top 10 would bring in between 6.8 and 28.4 billion euros, depending on the tax model, the institute further stated.
