VietNamNet Bridge - In order to be listed among top 10 stock billionaires by December 21, 2016, an individual must have stock assets of at least VND2.2 trillion, a figure higher than the total assets of many listed companies.

Ten years ago, ‘the rich’ meant business people who got wealthy from trade and real estate development. When the stock market boomed in 2006, many Vietnamese began talking about a new generation of ‘super rich’ on the stock market called ‘securities godfathers’. 

The value of stocks held by individuals was worth up to trillions of dong, or even higher than the total assets of many enterprises in Vietnam.

At the end of 2006, one needed to have assets worth VND836 billion to be added to the list of the 10 richest stock billionaires.

The businessman who topped the 2006 list of richest stock billionaires was Truong Gia Binh, president of FPT, the largest domestic information technology group. 

FPT shares entered the bourse on December 13, 2006 and had a closing price of VND400,000 on the same day.

The amount of FPT shares Binh held at that time was valued at nearly VND2.4 trillion, which helped him become the richest stock billionaire. Other members of FPT’s board of management, including Le Quang Tien and Bui Quang Ngoc were also among top 10.

The list of richest stock billionaires then comprises of many other well known names such as chair of Minh Phu Seafood Company Le Van Quang, chair of Saigon Securities Incorproated Nguyen Duy Hung and chair of Refrigeration Engineering Enterprise Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh.

In order to be listed among top 10 stock billionaires by December 21, 2016, an individual must have stock assets of at least VND2.2 trillion, a figure higher than the total assets of many listed companies.

In the following years, Pham Nhat Vuong, Doan Nguyen Duc, Dang Thanh Tam and Tran Dinh Long were in the highest positions on the list.

Meanwhile, in order to be listed among the 10 richest stock billionaires in 2016, one needs to have more valuable assets, VND2.2 trillion at least. 

And in order to be listed among the 100 richest stock billionaires, one needs to have VND200 billion.

Truong Gia Binh, Doan Nguyen Duc, Nguyen Duy Hung and Le Phuoc Vu no longer are   in the top 10.

Thanks to the stock market, Vietnamese now know about two US dollar billionaires – Pham Nhat Vuong, chair of Vingroup, and Trinh Van Quyet, chair of FLC.

Vuong is well known as a dollar billionaire, while Quyet is a newly emerging billionaire thanks to FLC and ROS shares worth $1.3 billion he holds.

Analysts believe the assets of the richest billionaires will be increasing in the future when a series of large-scale enterprises list their shares on the bourse. The names of new super-rich people will then become public.