Vietnam tech unicorn VNG appoints new chairman

Vietnamese tech giant VNG Corporation has named Vo Sy Nhan as its new chairman, replacing Le Hong Minh.

Nhan has been a VNG board member since the firm's extraordinary general meeting of shareholders at the end of last year, for the term 2022 - 2025.

Nhan, 48, has a bachelor's degree in commerce and marketing granted by Australia's Deakin University in 1996. He is now managing director of Empire City in Thu Duc city, Ho Chi Minh City, overseeing business activities of this high-end apartment complex project, and co-founder and CEO of GAW NP Capital from 2015.

He used to work for the HCMC's Department of Planning and Investment, holding positions like leaders of the investment and promotion team and the official development assistance (ODA) project management team.

The Empire City website shows that in the eight years working for the project, Nhan has successfully completed many real estate deals like The Estella, Le Meridien Saigon Complex, OneHub Saigon, and Empire City.

He was also co-founder and chairman of Naked Hub Vietnam, a network of premium co-working spaces, which was later acquired by global provider of co-working spaces Wework.

Le Hong Minh remains to be general director of VNG. Minh is founder and was chairman of VNG from 2004. He is also one of the biggest shareholders of the company, owning a nearly 10% stake and representing a nearly 8% stake.

VNG is currently a leading technology services provider in Vietnam. The participation of foreign shareholders helped the firm become the first unicorn in the country, with a valuation of $1 billion. It was officially valued at $1 billion in the World Startup Report in 2014 after 10 years of operation.

On January 5, VNG began trading its VNG shares on the unlisted public company market UPCoM at the reference level of VND240,000 ($10.2), with a trading band of 40%.

With 35.8 million shares registered for trading, the market capitalization of VNG was estimated at more than VND8,600 billion ($360 million). This figure is much lower than the valuation of $1 billion for a business to be considered a unicorn, which VNG achieved in 2014.

VNG closed the Wednesday trading session at VND240,000 ($10.24) per share.