VietNamNet Bridge - The total value of assets of Hoang Kieu, a Vietnamese-American billionaire, just hit $2.8 billion, which placed the 70-year-old businessman on Forbes’ list of the 1,000 richest billionaires in the world.

According to Forbes, by mid-September, Hoang Kieu had become the businessman with the fastest-growing assets on its billionaire list. With $2.8 billion, Hoang Kieu is currently the 633rd richest billionaire in the world.

The assets of this Vietnamese-American billionaire mainly comes from 183.6 million shares in Shanghai RAAS, a company specializing in supply of plasma products for the pharmaceutical sector based in China, equivalent to 37% of the shares of the company.

Hoang Kieu was born in the village of Bich Khe, in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province, in a Confucian family. HIs grandfather was a mandarin of the Nguyen Dynasty.

When he was five years old, Hoang Kieu went to Saigon to study. In 1975, a few months after arriving in America, he got a job at the pharmaceutical company Abbott. Five years later, from an employee, he was appointed the director of the plasma testing and manufacturing division.

Abbott sent him to study at the University of Santa Barbara from 1976 to 1979. Over 14 years later, from 1980 to 1994, he built 11 plasma centers in the United States.

In 1987, he established the Shanghai RAAS plasma manufacturing company in Shanghai. It was the result of many years of work, with 20 hours a day by Hoang Kieu.

Compared with his previous worth of $1.6 billion by Forbes, his fortune has increased tremendously, taking him from the 1,078th position to the 633rd. According to the figures, there are 24 other billionaires with have the same value of assets, who ranked from 631st to 652nd.

S. Tung