VietNamNet Bridge - Nikkei Asian Review recently selected the Top 100 largest enterprises in ASEAN, including five Vietnamese companies. Who are the bosses of these firms?

The five Vietnamese representatives are the Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), FPT, PetroVietnam Gas, Vietnam Dairy Products (Vinamilk), and Vingroup.

The companies were selected from six major ASEAN countries based on such factors as market capitalization and growth potential. ASEAN is a 10-member bloc comprised of Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Founded on September 13, 1988 and headquartered in Hanoi, FPT Corp. provides information, technology, and telecommunications products and services. FPT’s market capitalization is $789.58 million, according to data updated on November 21 by Nikkei Asian Review. The company posted $1.28 billion in revenue and a $263.38 million gross profit in 2013.

Vietcombank has a market capitalization of $3.42 billion, whereas its 2013 revenue topped $1.62 billion.

Petrovietnam Gas JSC is a subsidiary of the leading Vietnamese oil and gas giant PetroVietnam, with a market cap of $8.81 billion; while Vinamilk is Vietnam’s largest dairy producer with $1.47 billion in revenue in 2013.

Vingroup JSC engages in the construction of retail outlets, commercial offices, and residential units. The company, which also offers entertainment services, posted $909.8 million in revenue last year.

Launched in November 2013, Nikkei Asian Review is an English-language business journal operated by Nikkei Inc., one of the largest media corporations in Japan, which specializes in publishing financial, business, and industry news.

Among the bosses of these corporations, there are well-known names and also new ones. Who are they?

Vinamilk CEO Mai Kieu Lien

The CEO of Vinamilk is one of the most famous entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Asia. She was the only one Vietnamese in the top 50 most powerful businesswomen in Asia selected by Forbes in 2012.

Lien was born in France and educated in Moscow. In 1976, she returned to Vietnam and joined Southern Milk & Café, which is Vinamilk's predecessor, helping to modernize the old state dairy collective. She became chairwoman after privatization in 2003.

In 2010, Vinamilk also received the Forbes Asia’s 2010 Best Enterprise award among Top 200 best enterprises in Asia.

It was the first time that a Vietnamese enterprise was acknowledged among 151 new others and awarded the title "Best Under A Billion" for small- and medium-sized businesses, with capital worth under $1 billion by the professional financial magazine.

Under the helm of Mai Kieu Lien, Vinamilk in particular and the local dairy market in general experienced a boom. Lien has turned Vinamilk into the second largest firm on the Vietnam stock exchange, with about $5.5 billion, and the company holds up to 50% of the dairy market share in Vietnam.

Vinamilk said it targets to become one of the world’s 50 largest dairy producers with annual revenue of $3 billion by 2017.

While being a successful and busy businesswoman, Lien has maintained a normal lifestyle with regular yoga, and swimming exercises, and occasionally travels with her husband. Lien has undertaken housework without assistance from any domestic help and for 31 years she has been living in her old house in HCM City.

Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong - Vingroup Chairman

Vuong, founder and chairman of conglomerate Vingroup, is known as the first Vietnamese entering the Forbes list of world billionaires in 2013, with total assets of US$1.5 billion, based largely on the 53 percent stake he owns in Vingroup, a real estate development firm.

Vuong remains the sole Vietnamese cited in Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s richest people this year. With an anonymous source worth at least $1.6 billion, Vuong ranked 1.092 out of a record setting 1,645 billionaires who made the list released on March 3.

Forbes estimates that in 2013, Vuong netted US$1 billion through a mix of investments and private equity and real estate deals.

He also participated in a high profile venture to construct Vincom Mega Mall Royal City in Hanoi, touted as Asia’s largest underground retail and entertainment complex, which contributed to increasing Vingroup’s shares by 15% in the past year.

Vuong was born in 1968 in Hanoi and earned his first billion dollars as an entrepreneur of an international food export company in Ukraine named LLC Technocom. He returned to Vietnam in early 2000 and began heavily investing in the country’s real estate market.

He founded Vinpearl Land (VPL) and Vincom Joint Stock Company (VIC) and was elected as President of the Overseas Vietnamese Entrepreneur Association in August 2009.

In September 2009, Technocom changed its name to Vingroup (Vietnam Investment Group) and relocated its headquarters from Kharkov (Ukraine) to Hanoi, Vietnam.

The VIC was established in May 3, 2002 with an initial chartered capital of VND196 billion which swelled to VND251 billion in only one year. The company increased its chartered capital to VND2 trillion in September 2009 and stepped up investment in the construction of high-end apartment, office and shopping malls in Hanoi.

Its investments included such projects as Vincom tower in 191 Ba Trieu Street which was sold to the Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in 2006 and B Vincom which was sold to Techcombank in late 2011.

The group’s headquarters was moved to Vincom Village in Sai Dong in Long Bien District, Hanoi in early 2012.

At present, Vuong is the first USD billionaire on the Vietnam stock exchange with assets totaling nearly US$1 billion.

FPT Chair Truong Gia Binh

Born in 1956, Binh is the founder, chairman and CEO of FPT Group for over 20 years.

Binh graduated from the Mechanical Mathematics Department of Moscow National General University named Lomonosov of the former Soviet Union, which is now Russian Federation, in 1979. He obtained his PhD. in 1982 from this university and was honored as an Associate Professor by the State of Vietnam in 1991.

In September 1988, Binh, together with other twelve Vietnamese scientists, established FPT Food Processing Technology Company, precursor of FPT Corporation. Under his guidance, FPT has become the leading ICT Company in Vietnam.

Besides being an enterprise leader, he is also an enthusiastic man towards his nation and influences IT-related policies by the Vietnamese government.

Furthermore, since 1995, he has been working as the Dean of Business Administration Department of Hanoi School of Business (HBS for short), Hanoi National University. He has been the Chairman of Vietnam Software Association since 2001 and the Chairman of Vietnam Young Enterprises Organization from 1998 to 2005.

Vietcombank Chairman Nghiem Xuan Thanh

Thanh, born in 1969, holds a Master’s Degree of Banking and Finance. He has served for 24 years at the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) for 24 years. He then became the State Bank of Vietnam’s head of the secretariat from June, 2012 before joining Vietcombank in 2013. He was appointed Vietcombank Chairman this November, replacing Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh who had retired.

In the latest news, the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam has just appointed Thanh to represent 40 per cent of the State's contribution to the bank. The appointment was decided following the retirement of former VCB chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh.

PVGas Chairman Le Nhu Linh

Linh was born in 1967, and is a doctor of oil and gas geological economics. He was appointed Chairman of PVGas in December 2013.

Before holding this position, Linh assumed various positions: a lecturer at the Hanoi University of Mining – Geology, Deputy chief of the Planning and Investment Department of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam); Head of the Investment and Development Department of PetroVietnam and President of PV Drilling.

Cuong Ngo