From rags to riches story ends in police probe

Vietnamese businessman Phung Anh Tuan started out running a small pawnshop but has since built one of the best know financial services firms in Vietnam with a presence across the country, but now the company has found itself in hot water with the police.

Ho Chi Minh City police conducted searches of F88 offices on Monday on suspicion of property appropriation. According to a police source, F88 has been accused of threatening borrowers and property appropriation.

Established in 2013, F88 currently has 830 service points and offices across Vietnam and expects to expand to at least 1,000 this year, according to the Hanoi-headquartered company. It has achieved an average annual growth rate in loan balance and total revenue of more than 200%, and is planning an IPO next year if its market capitalization reaches $1 billion.

F88 subsequently announced that authorities were investigating an employee at the firm, but stated all its activities were based on strict procedures in compliance with Vietnamese laws.

On March 2, F88, the Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund, and Mekong Capital held an event in HCMC to announce the financial services firm had raised a series C investment of $50 million led by the fund and Mekong Capital’s Mekong Enterprise Fund IV to further expand its distribution network nationwide.

In 2022, F88 received $70 million in international loans, with $60 million from the Hong Kong-headquartered CLSA Capital Partners, and $10 million from the London-based Lendable.

Tuan’s firm targets unbanked and underserved people in the Vietnamese market, home to almost 100 million.

Tuan, 39, was born and grew up in the northern province of Phu Tho. He excelled at the Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT), but was also known as a hacker.

According to him, during his time as a business startup, he faced a financial shortage, thus regularly going to pawnshops to get cash to pay his employees. He then realized pawnshops were a good business and decided to open one. He founded F88 in 2013.

Three years later, he established technology corporation G Group, with its ecosystem including Ginnovations, BEATVN, G-Capital, Tima, G-Pay, VSEC, and GameTV.

Tuan is no longer the group’s chairman, and F88 is not part of the Hanoi-based group. However, the CEO of G Group is Phung Anh Tu, four years younger than Tuan, and lives with him in Hanoi.