100 richest Austrians own 10 percent of the wealth

In the meantime they are sitting on more than 200 billion euros, that is almost 10 percent of the total assets in Austria, writes the “trend” in its current edition. In the previous year, the wealth of the 100 richest had sunk to 155 billion euros. This year, the ranking includes not only familiar faces, but also some start-up founders for the first time.

In the past few months, the two domestic start-ups have done well with high-quality financing rounds and thus sharply increasing company ratings bitpanda and GoStudent attracted attention. In March, the crypto trading platform Bitpanda Investments was able to gain 170 million, and it is now valued at around one billion. The fortunes of the three founders Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer the “trend” estimates at over 600 million euros, which puts you in 67th place.

Bitpanda’s corporate value in Austria will only be overtaken by the start-up GoStudent. Just a few days ago, the tutoring platform was able to increase its value to around EUR 1.4 billion with a 205 million financing round. The two founders Felix Ohswald and Gregor Mller each hold shares in the company through foundations, both together come to around 22 percent. The fortune of the two is estimated at around 300 million euros, which puts them in 89th place in the current ranking.

Mateschitz in second place

Apart from the young and rich from the start-up scene, the top 10 wealthiest Austrians remained relatively unchanged from previous years. In the first place were the undisputed families Porsche and Piech (51.1 billion euros), which hold large shares in the German Porsche SE and thus in Volkswagen Porsche and the Salzburg car dealer Porsche Holding. The gain over the previous year is around 16 billion euros. The rising share price at VW and generous Porsche dividends helped to increase assets, writes the business magazine “trend”.

Stayed in second place Red-Bull-Grnder Dietrich Mateschitz With an estimated fortune of 16.4 billion euros, third place went this year to Elisabeth Schaeffler, who, together with her son Georg Continental, is a major shareholder and has assets of 9.4 billion euros. It also benefited from the stabilizing German auto industry.

Novomatic founder Johann Graf, which was in third place last year, slipped back to fifth place with assets of 5.5 billion euros. On the other hand, it has risen to the top 10 Michael Tojner, which is benefiting from the rising share price of the battery manufacturer Varta, which is part of Tojner’s Montana Tech Components, and whose assets are now estimated at 4.7 billion euros. It ranks 7th, last year it was 15th.

The was unchanged in 6th place Real estate investor Rene Benko with assets of EUR 4.9 billion. Despite the turbulence at Karstadt / Kaufhof, his Signa group was able to gain in value. The main reason for his acquisitions was, it says in the magazine report.

46 billionth in Austria

There are now a total of 46 billionaires in Austria, five more than in the previous year. The gap between rich and poor is likely to continue to drift apart in this country in the future. The share of the 500 richest families in Austria in total financial assets is currently 34 percent, according to the “trend” with reference to data from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). By 2025, the proportion should increase to 36 percent.

The Chamber of Labor (AK) and the trade union (GB) took the ranking today as an opportunity to once again demand a millionaire tax. “We have to reduce poverty and cannot watch the rich increase their wealth tax-free. A millionaire levy is a question of justice, and more and more super-rich themselves see it that way and are loudly calling for it,” said AK President Renate Anderl loudly a broadcast from Friday. The organizations are demanding a progressive tax rate for net assets of one million euros or more. With tax rates of 0.5 to 1.5 percent, income for the state of up to 5 billion euros would be possible, according to the broadcast.