VietNamNet Bridge – The $1.7 billion in assets owned by Pham Nhat Vuong, Vietnam’s richest billionaire, would be enough money to build four Gia Lai Myanmar Centers,  and buy 61 next-generation helicopters and the e-commerce Lazada system.

Pham Nhat Vuong fell 26 places on Forbes’ 2014 list of the world’s billionaires to the 1,118th position. However, he remains the richest person in the country.

Vuong’s Vingroup is a major player in the real estate market with a series of high-end new urban area projects such as Times City and Royal City, and resort projects such as Vinpearl Resorts and Vinpearl Luxury.

In Vietnam, the business circle often compares Vuong with Doan Nguyen Duc, chair of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, also a large real estate corporation. The difference between them is that Duc tries to develop projects overseas.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai Myanmar Center in Myanmar is believed to be the group’s largest outward investment project, capitalized at $440 million. As such, if Vuong were interested in Myanmar’s property market, he could build nearly four complexes like Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s.

Duc recently stirred up the public when deciding to buy a Legacy 600 helicopter worth $27.5 million. With his money, Vuong could also buy 1.5 million iPhone 6 Plus (128 GB) from phone shops in Vietnam.

Sources said that Vuong plans to jump into an unfamiliar business field in 2015, possibly e-commerce. In this field, Lazada deserves consideration.

With the successful mobilization of $249 million worth of capital last November, Lazada is now valued at 957.8 million euros, or $1.07 billion. As such, Vuong can buy Lazada if he wants.

The year 2014 was a very eventful one for Vietnam’s economy with a series of big merger and acquisition deals (M&A), including Berli Jucker buying Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam at $879 million and Mondelēz International buying 80 percent of Kinh Do Binh Duong at $370 million.

If Vuong wants, he is capable of buying Kinh Do, taking over Metro, and investing in a large real estate project like Hoang Anh Gia Lai Center in Myanmar as well.

In the aerospace field, Vuong’s wealth would allow him to contribute 30 percent of total capital needed for Mars One, a project on sending humans to Mars.

The project, initiated by Dutch businessman Bas Lansdorp, is expected to cost $6 billion.

Vuong, his wife and his brothers and sisters still held the position of the richest family in Vietnam in 2014 with stock value of up to $1.24 billion.

Total assets of the 30 richest families on the stock market reached VND74,818 billion, equivalent to more than $3.5 billion. This number increased by VND11.6 trillion compared with last year. To enter the Top 30, a family must have at least VND374 billion worth of stock assets, about VND40 billion higher than 2013.

Tri Thuc Tre