Billionaires’ list, net worth grow on stock market boom

In April 2020, when Forbes released its annual list of the world's richest people, Vietnam had only four representatives with a combined net worth of $10.2 billion.

Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate, Vingroup, remains the richest person with a net worth of $6.8 billion, $1.3 billion up since April. When he made it into the Forbes list for the first time in 2013, he had been worth $1.5 billion.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of budget airline Vietjet and the richest woman in Vietnam, is second with a net worth of $2.6 billion, up $400 million from April despite the beating the aviation industry has taken due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Tran Dinh Long, chairman of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, who had gone off the list since 2019, is the third richest with $2 billion as his net worth rose by more than $1 billion with the strong recovery of the company’s stock.

In March, Hoa Phat was trading at VND13,000 – 14,000 ($0.56-0.60), but recovered to VND20,000 ($0.86) by June-end and has doubled since then despite offloading by foreign investors.

The rise was underpinned by an unexpected third quarter performance when profits doubled year-on-year to VND3.79 trillion ($163.25 million), its highest ever, on rising sales.

Ho Hung Anh, chairman of the most profitable private lender Techcombank, is fourth with a net worth at $1.8 billion, up $800 million since April.

Nguyen Dang Quang, chairman of conglomerate Masan Group, returns to the billionaires’ list in fifth place with his net worth rising by $500 million to $1.5 billion. Masan is a major producer of fish sauce and packaged foods.

Tran Ba Duong, chairman of automaker Thaco Group, is in sixth place with an unchanged net worth of $1.5 billion.

The VN-Index closed at 1,103.87 points in the last session of the year, up 14.86 percent over 2019.