Two Vietnamese businessmen back on Forbes billionaires list

Masan Group founder Nguyen Dang Quang (L) and Hoa Phat steel tycoon Tran Dinh Long. Photo courtesy of Masan Group and Hoa Phat Group

Quang, chairman and founder of private food producer Masan Group, is 2,109th on the real time billionaires ranking updated by the US magazine on May 22 with a net worth of US$1 billion.

This data is updated based on changes in the price of MSN shares on the stock exchange, which account a majority of Quang's assets.

At the end of trading session on May 22, an MSN share was worth VND62,000 (US$2.65), up 27% against the end of March when Forbes updated the value of billionaires' assets, while TCB's share of private lender Techcombank, in which which Quang holds 9.4 million shares, also rose by 41%.

Quang made it to the Forbes list for the first time last year with a net worth of US$1.3 billion. He founded Masan, a major producer of fish sauce and packaged foods, in 2004.

Meanwhile, Long, chairman of Vietnam’s leading steel manufacturer Hoa Phat, was placed 2,122nd on the Forbes billionaires list with a net worth of US$1 billion as the value of the Hoa Phat (HPG) stock increasing significantly.

At the end of trading session on May 22, HPG's share price stood at VND27,300 (US$1.16), up 68% against last March.

Long founded Hoa Phat in Hanoi in 1992. The group currently manufactures office equipment, steel pipes and construction steel; and it is the biggest steelmaker in Vietnam.

Long, who entered the Forbes list of world’s richest people for the first time in 2018, is one of the largest shareholders of the Hoa Phat Group with over 700 million shares, equivalent to more than 25% of its chartered capital, according to the group’s management report.

Vietnam had four representatives in Forbes’ annual list of the world’s richest people in 2020 released last month. They are Pham Nhat Vuong, owner of Vietnam's biggest real estate conglomerate Vingroup and the country's first billionaire; Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of budget carrier Vietjet Air; Tran Ba Duong, chairman of Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco); and Ho Hung Anh, chairman of Techcombank.