VietNamNet Bridge - The owner of Tan Hiep Phat, one of the largest privately run conglomerates, could be the second Vietnamese dollar billionaire, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

After Vingroup’s president Pham Nhat Vuong was added on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires and became the first Vietnamese dollar billionaire, many other names have been cited by prestigious financial institutions as the candidates for the second position.

Bloomberg some days ago named Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the owner of Vietjet Air, a private air carrier for the position. Meanwhile, WSJ has mentioned the owner of Tan Hiep Phat.

The journal reported that Tan Hiep Phat plans to sell stakes to foreign investors to raise the company’s capital to $2 billion.

The figure has made people think that Tan Hiep Phat is now valued at $1 billion at least. And if so, Tran Quy Thanh and his family members, who now hold 100 percent of Tan Hiep Phat, will deserve to become the new dollar billionaire.

The owner of Tan Hiep Phat, one of the largest privately run conglomerates, could be the second Vietnamese dollar billionaire

Analysts noted that the figures of $1-2 billion shown by Tan Hiep Phat only reflects its ‘willingness’, and the value will only be recognized if a transaction at this value is made. 

However, they said $1 billion could be a ‘reasonable’ number, until the ‘fly’ incident occurred.

In late 2015, the movement to boycott Tan Hiep Phat’s products broke out, after Tan Hiep Phat, the manufacturer of many popular drinks in Vietnam, won a lawsuit and successfully sent a man to prison.

The court decided to send the man in Tien Giang province to jail for seven years for extorting money from Tan Hiep Phat for finding a bottle of the ‘Number One’ drink with a fly inside. The man demanded VND500 million from the company in return for his silence.

However, analysts said that Tan Hiep Phat is a success story about a privately run which successfully exploits a new market segment – instant tea -.and competes on a par with the world’s multinational groups in the domestic market.

The Vietnamese non-alcoholic drink sector is valued at tens of trillions of dong with annual two-digit growth rate. However, there are very few Vietnamese businesses which have the revenue of over VND1 trillion, except Tan Hiep Phat and Trung Nguyen and Vinacafe Bien Hoa – both of them coffee manufacturers. 

With revenue of VND7 trillion, the pretax profit of VND930 billion and post tax profit of VND730 billion in 2014, Tan Hiep Phat listed itself among private enterprises with highest revenue and profit.

These are impressive achievements because it shows Tan Hiep Phat is on acpar with Pepsi, above Coca Cola and Universal Robina (URC) from the Philippines, its direct rival.

Tri Thuc Tre