Samir Mane fled Albania’s communist regime in the early 1990s and resettled in Austria where he made his first fortune. Now back in Albania, he oversees a real estate and retail empire stretching across the western Balkans and beyond.

Mane, the 57-year-old tycoon, is Albania’s first—and only—billionaire, the richest person in this small Mediterranean country of just 2.8 million people. Thanks to his investments in retail, real estate and banking, he’s built a $1.4 billion fortune, per Forbes estimates, earning him a place on Forbes’ 2025 World’s Billionaires list.

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