Prague, New York - Entrepreneur Petr Kellner is still the Czech Republic's richest person.
However, the market value of his assets dropped over the past year to USD 8.2 billion (CZK 155.4 billion), said the Czech version of Forbes on its Facebook page.
In total, three Czech citizens made it to the list of the world's US dollar billionaires composed annually by the US magazine.
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In addition to its flagship PPF Group, Kellner also owns shares in Česká pojišťovna, the Czech Republic's largest insurance company, and in betting giant Sazka. In spite of this, the value of his assets declined last year.
Forbes explained that Kellner owns many financial services companies, such as Home Credit or Air Bank. This sector has been hard hit by the financial crisis, especially in Europe, said Forbes.
The authors of the list said that the market value of Kellner's empire is lower than it was in March 2011, when it was estimated by Forbes at USD 9.2 billion.
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"The PPF Group has not been immediately affected by the crisis, but if Petr Kellner wanted to sell one of his firms, he would probably earn less than in the time before the crisis," added Forbes.
In addition to Kellner, there are two other Czech citizens with assets exceeding one billion US dollars: investor Zdeněk Bakala (USD 2 billion) and owner of the Agrofert Group Andrej Babiš (USD 1.4 billion).
In addition, Czech internet entrepreneur Ivo Lukačovič is included in Forbes' so-called Shooting Stars category - a group of people who may become billionaires in 5 years. The market value of Lukačovič's assets is estimated at USD 500 million. Lukačovič is the founder and 70 percent owner of Seznam.cz, the Czech Republic's most visited web portal and search engine.
