Transactions at a Viettel store. Viettel tops the list with a brand value of over $2.9 billion. — Photo courtesy of the group

 
Forbes has announced the list of top 50 brands this year with total value rising by 22 per cent to more than $12.6 billion.

Military-run telecom giant Viettel tops the list with a brand value of over $2.9 billion, followed by Vinamilk, the country’s biggest dairy company, at more than $2.4 billion.

Telecom giant VNPT is in third place at $509 million.

The rest of the top 10 are brewer Sabeco, real estate corporation Vinhomes, telecom MobiFone, food group Masan Consumer, State-owned Vietcombank, IT giant FPT, and mall operator Vincom Retail.

The ranking was classified by industry. Most of the companies have operating time of more than 10 years. The food and beverage and financial services industries continue to dominate the list with nine representatives each. They were followed by real estate, IT, and retail.

Forbes Viet Nam made this list according to the method of Forbes in the US, calculating the contribution of the brands in their business performance. The most valuable brands achieved a large turnover in the industries where the brands play a leading role. After making a preliminary list of more than 100 strong brands with high coverage and consumer awareness, Forbes Viet Nam calculated the before-tax income and interest, then determined the value of intangible assets. The calculation is based on the financial statements of the companies.

The final brand value is determined based on the industry average price-earnings ratio (P/E). For unlisted companies, this magazine applies a comparative approach to listed companies in the same industry and the same size to determine brand value.

However, Forbes Viet Nam also noted that they did not calculate the brand of monopoly businesses, wholesalers and those which do not affect user behaviour.

Forbes Viet Nam acknowledged that there was not enough information to determine the brand value of some large State-owned and private enterprises when they did not disclose data. Therefore, public companies accounted for a large proportion of the list. — VNS