Millionaires losing billions in VND due to falls in stock price

VietNamNet Bridge – The VN Index has been continuously creating new bottom lines, making billions of VND in the stock market belonging to a large number of  millionaires ‘vanish into the air.’ In the last year, the index fell from 927 points on December 28, 2007 to 322 on October 28, 2008.

Investors are worried about the stock price decreases

Dang Thanh Tam, Chairman of the Saigon Investment Group, who topped the VN Express newspaper’s 2007 list of 100 stock millionaires, is holding 45 million KBC shares and 5 million ITA shares, which means he now has the stock assets of VND 2.4 trillion, a decrease of VND 3.9 trillion from the end of 2007.

Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technologies (FPT), who topped the 2006 list with 7.6 million FPT shares, now has VND 500 billion, which means VND 1.2 trillion has disappeared after 10 months.

Though Hoa Phat Group has been performing well with the profit of VND 1.1 trillion in the first nine months of 2008, but Hoa Phat Chairman Tran Dinh Long has still lost VND 1.8 trillion when his shares’ values dropped from VND 3.5 trillion to VND 1.6 trillion.

Doan Toi, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nam Viet Joint Stock Company, who is holding 30 million ANV shares worth VND 2.64 trillion at the end of 2007, has seen his assets drop to VND 600 billion.

Toi’s colleague, Truong Thi Le Khanh, Chairwoman of Vinh Hoan Seafood Joint Stock Company, has 18 million VHC shares which were worth VND 1.1 trillion in early 2007, and are now worth VND 370 billion.

The assets of Chairman and General Director of the leading securities company Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI), Nguyen Duy Hung, have also been estimated to have undergone the loss of several trillions in VND due to the sharp falls of SSI shares.

A lot of big names, who are the key shareholders of listed companies, holding the blue-chips, and once were listed in the top 20 stock millionaires, such as Nguyen Duc Kien (Asia Commercial Bank - ACB), Dang Van Thanh (Sacombank), Tran Le Nguyen (Kinh Do Group), and Dang Hoang Yen (Tan Tao Industrial Zone Development Company - ITA), have also lost hundreds of billions in VND due to the dramatic falls in stock price.

Chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, Doan Nguyen Duc, has also seen his assets decrease by VND 12 trillion, compared to the time when he sent words of his plans to buy the Arsenal Club. Duc holds 65 million of unlisted Hoang Anh Gia Lai shares. More than one year ago, the shares were traded at VND 240,000/share, but now they are trading at VND 60,000, which means that Duc’s total assets have fallen to VND 4 trillion.

Duc is still listed among the richest people in Vietnam. He is the only man in Vietnam who has a private aircraft.

Though the assets of the businessmen have decreased considerably, they are still listed as the richest people in Vietnam.

Most of the enterprises managed by the businessmen have earned big profits in the first nine months of the year. Hoa Phat, for example, gained a profit of nearly VND 1.1 trillion, FPT gained VND 850 billion, ACB earned VND 1.4 trillion, ITA earned VND 580 billion, and ANV earned VND 250 billion.

Big businessmen around the world have also seen their assets become smaller. Bloomberg has reported that Russian billionaires have lost US $230 billion just within five months, from May 19, 2008 to October 6, 2008 as the Russian financial market has fallen into the worst crisis it has seen in the last 10 years.

Roman Abramovich of the Chelsea Club has lost nearly US $20 billion, while the richest Russian person, Deripaska, has lost over US $16 billion.

Hundreds of billionaires have disappeared from the Forbes list of the richest people in the world due to the world’s financial chaos.