VietNamNet Bridge - The following tycoons started their business in Eastern Europe and had great achievements there, but they returned home to contribute to build the country's economy.

Vingroup’s Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong

Vuong’s original homeland is the central province of Ha Tinh but he was born and raised in Hanoi.

The turning point in this 47-year-old man’s life began when he became a student of the Hanoi University of Mines - Geology and was sent to study in Russia.

In 1993, after the Soviet Union disintegrated with many implications and new opportunities, Vuong began his business career in Moscow before moving to Ukraine, where he opened a restaurant and established Technocom company in Kharkov.

From 1993 to 1999, as the director, Vuong turned this small company into a strong group with the popular brand of Mivina (No. 1 in the snack food market, awarded the market founder title and ranked among the top 100 leading enterprises in Ukraine).

After spreading the influence of Technocom brand throughout Europe through food products, Vuong decided to invest in his homeland - Vietnam.

Since 2000, Vuong’s Vingroup has participated in the high-end tourism and real estate market of with two strategic brands of Vinpearl and Vincom. These brands have gained quick success with a series of prestigious projects such as Vincom Center Ba Trieu, Vincom Center HCM City and Vinpearl Nha Trang.

Since 2010, Vuong has been living in Vietnam to focus his effort in the domestic market through the development of large estate projects as Vincom Village, Royal City, Times City, Vincom Center HCM City, Vinpearl Da Nang and Vinpearl Nha Trang.

Vuong is the only Vietnamese billionaire, with the total assets of $1.7 billion, up from $1.6 billion of last year, according to Forbes. He currently holds 423,233,803 shares, equivalent to 30.16% of the shares of Vingroup (VIC) (by the end of December 31 2014).

Le Viet Lam - Chairman of Sun Group

Lam was a partner of Vuong in Ukraine. He then separated and founded Sun Group, which also operates in the real estate sector, with famous real estate projects such as Ba Na Hill in Da Nang and the Fansipan - Sapa cable project.

Lam was born in 1969 in Thanh Hoa province. He was sent to Russia to study in 1987.

After receiving a master’s degree in Moscow, Lam and his friends founded a small business in Kharkov.

He started his career from a small instant noodle plant, which later became a conglomerate with more than 4,000 employees and monthly revenues of over $10 million.

Masan’s boss Nguyen Dang Quang

If Pham Nhat Vuong is famous for his instant noodle products in Ukraine, Quang - a PhD in Physics - owned a well-known instant noodles brand in Russia.

In the early 1990s, Quang began selling instant noodles to Vietnamese people in Russia. He built the first factory with a capacity of 30 million packages/month, which then also produced soybean sauce, fish sauce, and chilli.

In 2002, Quang brought Masan brand to Vietnam.

In the homeland, Masan Food brand has reaped success with large market share for soybean sauce, fish sauce, instant noodles and seasoning powder, with sales in 2009 of nearly VND4,000 billion.

Masan has quickly dominated the market for sauces and noodles of Vietnam. He is also known as the first vice chair at Techcombank.

However, unlike many other bosses, Quang is quiet and is not named on any list of super-rich people.

Nguyen Canh Son - President of Eurowindow

Another tycoon who returned from Eastern Europe is Mr. Nguyen Canh Son (born in 1967).

In 1996, Son began business activities in Vietnam after becoming a shareholder of VIB Bank and later founded Eurowindow Holding to manage investment projects in Vietnam, mainly in the areas of real estate, building materials, finance ...

Having success with the Eurowindow plastic door brand, Son has shifted investment into real estate, finance, building materials and goods distribution.

Son is still the President of T&M Trans Group in Moscow, Russia.

He is a mysterious businessman but the development of the companies he founded in Vietnam, Eurowindow and Melinh Plaza, and his entry into the financial sector, including Techcombank and VIB Bank, shows potential power and prestige of this tycoon.

Trinh Thanh Huy - Chairman and CEO of Binh Thien Real Estate

Not as famous as Vuong and Quang, Trinh Thanh Huy, chairman and CEO of Binh Thien An Real Estate JSC (BTA), has been known for a series of acquisition deals, such as Vinafco, Beton 6, and Descon.

Huy, along with Nguyen Dang Quang and Ho Hung Anh, built Masan Group in Russia (then Masan in Vietnam), which fiercely competed with Rollton Company of Dang Khac Vy (a member of VIB Bank Board of Directors) and Vuong’s Technocom in Russia.

Huy (born in 1970) studied at the Military Technical Academy in Vietnam and Russia. He recently emerged with the $400 million Diamond Island project and $600 million Metropolis Thao Dien in HCM City and numerous acquisitions affairs.

Dang Khac Vy - VIB Bank Managing Board member

Vy is a doctor of economics and worked for many years in Russia and Singapore.

Like many well-known Vietnamese businessmen in Eastern Europe, he produced instant noodles in Russia and “defeated” Masan instant noodles there.

Vy is one of the founding members of VIB Bank in Vietnam.

Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of this bank and the Chair of Future Generation,one of the largest corporations of Vietnamese abroad, operating in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and some Asian countries.

Products of this group are distributed in over 20 countries worldwide. Vy is one of the most successful Vietnamese businessmen in Vietnam as well as abroad.

DS&PL