VietNamNet Bridge – Though the real estate market has been cool for a long time with the prices bottoming down, it remains a profitable business which helps a lot of Vietnamese families get rich.

The most brilliant businessmen in real estate sector

While the cash flow to the stock market on the last days of 2013 was so weak, it made a lot of stocks fall in price. VIC shares of Pham Nhat Vuong, a real estate billionaire, were still traded at VND70,000 per share, a high price level. HAG shares of Doan Nguyen Duc were traded at VND21,000, while HPG shares of Tran Dinh Long at VND41,000.

As such, Vuong, Duc and Long, have been staying firmly at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 positions in the list of the 2013 stock millionaires. And they are all the big real estate developers.

It seems that the richest families in Vietnam are the ones in the real estate sector. Vuong’s family, for example, holds 400 million VIC, of which 285 million shares belong to Vuong, 49 million shares to his wife and a large amount of shares owned by Vuong through the Vietnam Investment Group, where he contributes 50 percent of capital.

The total stock assets of the billionaire have reportedly reached VND30 trillion, or $1.5 billion.

Duc and his family members now hold 318.5 million HAG shares, while Duc alone holds 311 million shares worth VND6.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, Long and his family members, with 132 million HPG shares, now have the total assets of VND5.4 trillion.

The family of Dang Thanh Tam, a big businessman who has experienced ups and downs in recent years, has unexpectedly jumped to the fourth position thanks to the strong recovery of KBC, the shares of the Kinh Bac Urban Area Development and ITACO of the Tan Tao Industrial Zone Development Group.

Tam now holds 160 million KBC, ITA, SGT and NVB shares worth VND1.3 trillion.

Making money with real estate, finance investments

The 2013 list of richest families does not include Nguyen Tuan Hai (Alphanam), Dang Van Thanh (Sacombank) and Nguyen Duc Kien (ACB), the names which appeared in the 2012 list.

The three names have been replaced by Tran Mong Hung, Le Phuoc Vu and Ha Van Tham.

Hung only holds the amount of the bank shares worth VND260 billion. However, Hung’s family still has been named in the list thanks to the big amounts of shares held by his relatives, valued at VND1.6 trillion, high enough to be put into the top 10.

Ha Van Tham, a new name in the top 10, has caught the special attention from the public with the wise merger and acquisition (M&A) deals he made in 2013, which has helped Ocean Group turn into one of the leading multi-field groups.

Only a small amount of shares is in Tham’s name (3.3 million OGC, or 1.11 percent). However, in fact, the big businessman has been controlling the group thanks to the indirect share ownership through Ha Bao, a private enterprise that holds 44.4 percent of OGC.

As such, seven out of the 10 richest families are doing business in the real estate or related sectors, from Vuong (high end real estate projects), Duc (real estate projects in Vietnam and overseas), Long (real estate and building materials), to Tam (industrial real estate), Le Phuoc Vu (building material) and Ha Van Tham (real estate, tourism and banking).

Manh Ha