If a year ago, Samir Mane entered the Forbes billionaires list for the first time, this year, he has added 500 million US dollars to his wealth, according to data published by the global magazine, reports noa.al.
The well-known Albanian businessman, sole partner of several commercial companies and a large business group, ranks 2,177th out of 3,428 billionaires on the Forbes 2026 billionaires list.
Last year Forbes recorded 2,933 billionaires and Mane was in 2,356th place.
For 2026, according to Forbes, Samir Mane, 58, has broken his own record by managing to increase his wealth to $1.9 billion or nearly 162 billion new lek.
“Samir Mane is the founder and president of BALFIN Group, an investment conglomerate headquartered in Tirana, Albania,” says Forbes.
While adding: BALFIN owns shopping malls, electronics and toy store chains in the Western Balkans, as well as a bank and luxury real estate projects in Albania.
Mane fled Albania’s communist regime in 1991 and settled in Austria as a refugee. In 1993, he began selling household appliances in Albania.
In 1998, he founded Neptun, a chain of electronics stores in Albania, and in 2005 he returned to the country to open the first modern shopping center in Albania.
BALFIN also owns real estate in the United States, Canada and Austria, as well as logistics parks and a private university in Albania.
