Vietnamese billionaires saw their asset value fluctuate heavily in 2023, but their positions on the list of stock billionaires did not change. The year saw upheavals in the stock market with share prices increasing sharply in the first months of the year, but correcting in mid-year before bouncing back recently.

Vuong of Vingroup remains the richest businessman with asset value of VND88 trillion ($3.7 billion) as of February 7.

The Bloomberg Billionaire Index, which ranks 500 billionaires of the world, showed that the president of Vingroup and VinFast had $7.15 billion as of February 8. Vuong was back on the list of top 500 billionaires after counting the assets of VinFast.

Months before, Bloomberg had not included VinFast (VFS) because VFS prices fluctuated heavily. On August 15, 2023, when VinFast listed 2.3 billion shares on Nasdaq, VFS prices went up and down, from $23 per share to $90 per share and then to $5 per share. Recently, VFS prices have been stable at $5-6 per share.

Vuong owns 45 percent of VinFast’s shares. 

According to Forbes, Vuong had $4.5 billion as of February 8, 2024. Prior to that, Forbes in late August 2023 reported that Vuong’s assets were valued at $66 billion, making Vuong the 16th richest billionaire on the planet and the second in Asia, amid VinFast’s capitalization value of over $200 billion. However, the institutions recalculated Vuong’s assets amid the heavy price fluctuations of VFS shares.

Other billionaires

In the Year of the Cat, investors saw the strong recovery of Hoa Phat shares (HPG). Tran Dinh Long’s assets, according to Forbes, increased by $500 million to $2.3 billion by February 7.

Hoa Phat’s revenue and profit rose sharply in the fourth quarter 2023 and for the first time in history, Hoa Phat’s capitalization value exceeded that of Vingroup owned by Vuong.

According to Forbes, the president of Vietjet Air (VJC), Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, had  $2.4 billion by February 7, becoming the second richest billionaire in Vietnam. 

Long is in the third position, followed by Thaco president Tran Ba Duong and his family members ($1.5 billion). The fifth position belongs to Ho Hung Anh ($1.4 billion).

Nguyen Dang Quang, president of Masan Group, is on the sixth position with nearly $1 billion worth of assets.

Masan Group (MSN) had good business results in 2023 with net revenue increasingly slightly by 2.7 percent over the year before to VND78.3 trillion and post-tax profit of VND1.9 trillion.

If calculating the value of listed shares, the other businessmen in the top 10 billionaires include Sunshine president Do Anh Tuan (VND23.7 trillion), Vu Thu Hien, the wife of Long (VND11.3 trillion), Novaland president Bui Thanh Nhon (VND11 trillion), Phat Dat Real Estate president (VND8.8 trillion) and FPT president Truong Gia Binh (VND8.1 trillion).

Binh's asset value has increased by VND680 billion in 2023 thanks to the price increases of ‘FPT family’ shares, including FPT, FRT, FOX and FPTS. 

In 2023, FPT reported revenue increasing by 20 percent to VND52.6 trillion. FPT share prices soared by 25 percent in the Year of the Cat to the historic peak of VND104.9 trillion on February 7.

FPT shares of FPT Retail and FOX of FPT Telecom (UpCom) were traded at historic peaks of VND123,900 and VND61,500 per share, respectively.

Manh Ha