Dan Petrescu (1953 – 3 October 2021) was a Romanian businessman and billionaire, among the richest people in Romania. Born in 1953 in Bucharest, Petrescu studied at the Politehnica University of Bucharest. After graduating, Petrescu married his wife Regina Dorotea Petrescu Balzat, with whom he had a son, Dan Ștefan Petrescu, and emigrated to West Germany. There, he met who would be his economic partner for years, Ion Țiriac, another Romanian businessman. They were involved in several businesses together and returned to Romania following the Romanian Revolution. Petrescu later ran various businesses on his own, earning a lot of property and a total wealth of around €3 billion. He was private with his personal life, having never given an interview, and was described as humble. Petrescu, his wife and his son and some friends of his family died on 3 October 2021 following an airplane crash on

San Donato Milanese San Donato Milanese ( Milanese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about southeast of Milan. It is served by the San Donato underground station right on the borderline betwe ...

, near Milan, in Italy.

Biography

Dan Petrescu was born in 1953 in Bucharest. After ending his studies at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Petrescu married and emigrated to West Germany in the 1980s, starting a business in the domain of

automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

in the country. In West Germany, Petrescu met the Romanian businessman and now former tennis player Ion Țiriac, with whom he began to collaborate in tennis-related businesses. Petrescu and Țiriac returned to Romania following the Romanian Revolution, where they continued to be economic partners. Petrescu was involved in the development of companies with Țiriac such as the Ion Țiriac Bank (now UniCredit Bank Romania) or some real estate companies. Eventually, both businessmen split their ways, with Petrescu starting his own business in real estate and car distribution, thus managing to amass a great fortune. Țiriac would later state at several times that Petrescu had a wealth greater than him. As of 2020, Țiriac was the third richest Romanian in the world, and his net worth was of 6 billion Romanian lei on that year. Petrescu was notable for his confidentiality and for how little was known about him, this being the reason why he was sometimes called the "shadow billionaire" ( ro, miliardarul din umbră). Petrescu never gave an interview, tried not to stand out and did his business through several offshore companies. He was described as humble and it has been said about Petrescu that "he drove an Opel Vectra for years" and that "you could see him on a scooter on the street and not know who he is". He was jokingly called Petre Ispirescu by his friends since "he had an innate talent for telling stories". Petrescu controlled vast extensions of land in Romania, including in the capital Bucharest. He owned 150 apartments in the city, as well as several villas. His companies built dozens of shopping centers, some of which operated

Auchan Auchan () is a French multinational retail group headquartered in Croix, France. It was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and is owned by the Mulliez family, who has 95% stake in the company. With 354,851 employees, of which 261,000 have 5% s ...

, Carrefour,

Metro AG Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. Until 2020 it was also active in general retail business through Real division, wh ...

and Real stores. Petrescu used to rent some of the spaces he owned for periods of between 10 and 20 years, which contributed to part of his great fortune. His wealth has been estimated to have been €3 billion. Petrescu held both Romanian and German citizenship. Petrescu died on 3 October 2021, aged 68, in an airplane crash. He owned a private plane, a

Pilatus PC-12 The Pilatus PC-12 is a pressurized, single-engined, turboprop aircraft, manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland, since 1991. It was designed as a high-performance utility aircraft that incorporates a large aft cargo door in ad ...

, which he bought in 2015 and piloted himself. The plane carried the registration YR-PDV and was registered in Romania, having set off from there on 30 September 2021. It later arrived in Milan, in Italy, and on the day of the crash, it took off from there at 13:03 CEST bound for Olbia, also in Italy, and crashed into an empty building under renovation shortly after on 13:12 CEST on

, close to Milan. The plane had eight passengers of varying nationalities (mostly Romanian and Italian), all of whom died. One of them was Dan Petrescu, as well as his son Dan Ștefan Petrescu and his wife Regina Dorotea Petrescu Balzat. Other victims were Filippo Nascimbene, his wife Claire Stephanie Caroline Alexandrescou, their one-year-old baby boy Raphael Nascimbene and Claire's mother Miruna Anca Wanda Lozinschi, as well as Julien Brossard, all of them being friends of the Petrescu family. Following the airplane crash, it was announced that the Romanian businesswoman Anca Surugiu, who had been an assistant and coordinator for all of Petrescu's companies, would take over his fortune.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrescu, Dan 1953 births 2021 deaths Romanian billionaires Romanian real estate businesspeople Businesspeople from Bucharest German people of Romanian descent Naturalized citizens of Germany Politehnica University of Bucharest alumni Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Italy Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2021