Telecom giant Viettel only Vietnam firm named in Brand Finance Global 500

Military-run telecom group Viettel has been valued at $8.9 billion, up $144 million year-on-year, and remains the only Vietnamese brand in the 2023 edition of the Global 500 report by valuation consultants Brand Finance.

Ranked 234th out of 500 names, Viettel's value climbed for the eighth year in a row, up 9.1 times since its first appearance in 2016.

In the context of the global telecom industry's difficulties and the decline of big brands, this year's list included only 30 telecom businesses, down by six from last year.

The total value of telecom companies this year reached $537.5 billion, the fifth highest among all sectors. Within the sector, Viettel is the only Southeast Asian on the list, and jumped to ninth position in Asia and 17th in the world.

Viettel attributed the achievements to improved performance last year, particularly in non-telecom businesses such as digitalization, high-tech industrial production, information-technology solutions, and others.

Viettel reported a pre-tax profit of VND43.1 trillion ($1.83 billion) in 2022, up 3% year-on-year and a five-year high. Its consolidated revenue reached VND163.8 trillion ($6.96 billion), up 6.1%. The military-run group paid VND38 trillion ($1.62 billion) to the state budget, equivalent to its contribution in 2019 before the pandemic, according to its annual report.

Viettel's main source of revenue from telecommunications was maintained thanks to its position as the number 1 mobile telecom service provider in the country with a 54% market share. Viettel recorded nearly $3 billion in overseas service revenue in 2022 for the first time, equivalent to its domestic telecommunications figure.

According to Brand Finance's list for Vietnamese brands in 2022, Viettel led the pack with a value of $8.8 billion, followed by telecom rival VNPT and dairy giant Vinamilk. The four telecom brands - Viettel, VNPT, Vinaphone (brand value up 11% to $859 million) and Mobifone (down 21% to $661 million) have a total brand value of $13.1 billion and compromise the largest economic sector by brand value, according to the report.

The banking sector follows with $8.5 billion in brand value from 12 brands, with the food sector being the third most valuable sector at $3.5 billion from seven brands.