VietNamNet Bridge – The strong recovery of real estate and seafood shares this year helped a number of wealthy individuals make more money on the stock market.

Hoa Phat Chairman Tran Dinh Long.

The stock market experienced many ups and downs this year, including high gains in March and September and sharp falls in May and December.

After a dramatic plunge in early December 2014, the VN Index of the HCM City stock market is now 15 points higher than in early 2014, while the HNX Index of the Hanoi bourse has increased by 19 percent.

VnExpress, a local online newspaper, and its partner, VNDirect Securities Company, has released a list of 20 stock millionaires who saw their assets increase sharply in 2014.

Tran Dinh Long, chair of Hoa Phat, a private industrial production group, has had the highest stock asset increase in 2014 thanks to a 16 percent Hoa Phat share price increase.

With his stock value up by VND1.6 trillion, Long’s stock asset has increased to VND5.74 trillion.

Long was listed in the top three of Vietnamese stock millionaires in 2013.

Long’s wife, Vu Thi Hien, also benefited from the Hoa Phat share price increase, with her asset value having increased by VND490 billion.

The other key personnel of Hoa Phat, including CEO Tran Tuan Duong, members of the Board of Directors Nguyen Manh Tuan and Doan Gia Cuong received VND480 billion from their assets.

Hoa Phat had an impressive business performance in the first three quarters of the year with post-tax profit reaching VND2.7 trillion, an increase of 80 percent over the same period last year.

According to Duong, the profit came mostly from the steel complex in Hai Duong province in the north, and Mandarin Garden, a high-end apartment project.

Though Long tops the list of the 20 businessmen who have had the highest increase in  asset value; most of the other names are from seafood companies.

Truong Thi Le Khanh, dubbed as the “woman general in the catfish industry”, president and CEO of Vinh Hoan Seafood Company, has seen her asset value up by VND1.2 trillion.

Meanwhile, the “king of the shrimp industry” Le Van Quang, chair of Minh Phu Seafood Company, and his wife have added VND1.7 trillion to their assets.

Duong Ngoc Minh, a major catfish exporter, earned VND690 billion more from Viet Thang and Hung Vuong Seafood Companies’ shares.

These increases in assets showed the strong recovery of the seafood industry which experienced tough days in 2013, when a number of seafood companies incurred huge losses and later were dissolved.

Doan Nguyen Duc, president of Hoang Anh Gia Lai, one of the most influential businessmen in Vietnam, ranks third on a list with the assets that increased by VND1.2 trillion.

US$1 = VND21,000

Mai Chi