Chairman of Masan Group Nguyen Dang Quang loses 4 million USD in his assets since March 2019. (Screenshot from Forbes)

On March, 2019, Forbes2020 World Billionaires list included five billionaires from Vietnam with totalassets of 13.6 billion USD.

They included returnees Pham NhatVuong, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao and Tran Ba Duong and newcomers Ho Hung Anh andNguyen Dang Quang. The list, led by Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of onlineretail site Amazon, includes 2,153 billionaires with total assets of 8.7trillion USD.

On the first day of 2020, whilethe total assets of the five Vietnamese billionaires increased by 8 million USDto hit 14.4 billion USD, the two newcomers saw their personal wealth decrease.

As of January 1, in theupdate of Forbes list of billionaires, chairman of consumer goods and naturalresources firm Masan Group Nguyen Dang Quang lost 4 million USD inhis assets. Now at 1 billion USD, he sits at 2,167th, 450 places lower than hisranking last year.

Data from the local stockmarket shows continuous declining sessions pulled Masan's shares (MSN)down from a peak of 91,000 VND (3.9 USD) in May to 56,500 VND on the lastworking day of December.

Also a newcomer to the list, HoHung Anh, Chairman of Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank(Techcombank), lost 3 million USD and 421 places in the ranking. He nowranks 1,770th in the list with assets of 1.4 billion USD.

Last year, Techcombank recorded pre-taxprofit of nearly 10.7 trillion VND, an year-on-year increase of 31 percent. Thebank is the second largest bank in Vietnam after State-owned bank Vietcombank.

Billionaire Ho Hung Anh — Screenshot from Forbes

However, its shares declinedbadly in the market in June and August, making firm lose about 12 percent inthe market value.

According to Forbes, both Masanand Techcombank are major institutions in Vietnam, ranked in the top 10 largestenterprises on the HCM Stock Exchange. Techcombank Chairman Ho Hung Anh andMasan Chairman Nguyen Dang Quang used to manage both Techcombank andMasan. Last year, Anh withdrew from Masan's vice chairman position to focus onTechcombank under the local banking industry’s regulations. Quang, on the otherhand, is still vice chairman of Techcombank.

Not losing a penny from theassets last year, chairman of Thaco – the biggest car company in Vietnam – TranBa Duong and his family still have 1.7 billion USD. But they lost 128places in list to rank 1,477th.

Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong,who is still the richest man in Vietnam with 7.6 billion USD in assets,added another 1 billion USD to his assets but fell 13 places and now ranks242nd in the list. At certain points last year, Vuong was among the 200richest people on the planet.

Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong. — Screenshot from Forbes website

Earlier, Vuong shared withBloomberg that he would spend 2 billion USD of his personal assets by selling a10 percent stake in Vingroup to bring the group’s car of VinFast to the USmarket. 

Vietnam's first femalebillionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao became richer and has a higher rank. Thao’sassets increased by 4 million USD to reach 2.7 billion USD and she is up 73 places from last year to rank 935th.

Vietjet Air CEO and President Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao (Photo: cafef.vn)

 
Thao’s budget airline, VietJetAir, which offers more than 300 flights a day, operates some 40 percent ofthe nation's flights and became public in February 2017. She also hasinvestments in HDBank and real estate.

At the end of last year,shares of VietJet Air added 1.2 percent to reach 146,200 VND each whileVingroup’s shares stayed unchanged at 115,000 VND./.VNA

Forbes announces 100 largest firms in Vietnam for first time

Forbes Vietnam has announced a list of the 100 largest public firms in the country for the first time.

Vietnam – first choice of many industrial sectors: Forbes

For many industries, Vietnam has become their first choice in this manufacturing diaspora, said an article on Forbes recently.