Vingroup only Vietnamese representative among world's top 750 family businesses

Vingroup, which has a 62.1 percent family shareholding, generated revenues of $5.2 billion in 2018 and employed 75,800 employees, according to the latest report from Family Capital, a U.K.-based online publishing company dedicated to the global family enterprise sector, in cooperation with consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Vingroup is the only Vietnamese representative on this list, which ranks 750 family businesses in 55 countries and territories based on 2018 revenues. The country’s largest jewelry company DOJI, which ranked 740th last year, missed out this year.

This year, Family Capital has introduced comparative market capitalization numbers to show how publicly-listed family businesses have fared during the first few months of the Covid-19 crisis, based on the companies’ market cap from the beginning of 2020 until mid-March.

Vingroup is a conglomerate with the country’s largest real estate operations and interests in retail, healthcare, education, automobiles, smartphones and electronics. Run by the country’s first billionaire, Pham Nhat Vuong, it has reported a market cap of $12.2 billion as of mid-March, down 22.9 percent from last January, the report said.

In order to qualify for the ranking, the family or group of families would have to control at least 50 percent of the voting shares in a privately held company and at least 32 percent of the voting rights in a publicly listed company.

The 750 family businesses generated $9.1 trillion in revenues in 2018, and employed 30.5 million people, the report said.

The US is still the number one nation for top family businesses, with 165 of its companies in the top 750, followed by Germany with 108.

Family businesses are a core economic factor in any country, including Vietnam. The 100 largest family businesses contribute about 25 percent of the country’s GDP, Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), had noted at the Vietnam Family Business Forum 2019 in Hanoi.

Among the 50 best listed companies in Vietnam are many family run businesses, including blue chip stocks, like Vingroup, Vietjet Air, Thanh Thanh Cong, and Kido, he said.

As many as 95 percent of Vietnamese enterprises are family businesses and the majority are led by the first generation or the first two generations, Loc added.