Vietnamese billionaires' net worth drops $2 bln amid bourse volatility

Total net worth of Vietnamese billionaires has slumped by $2 billion since Forbes’s annual ranking of the planet’s richest people in March amid the local stock market's volatility.

Six out of seven Vietnamese representatives in Forbes’s list of U.S. dollar billionaires have experienced a plummet in total assets, with their total wealth dropping to $19.2 billion as of May 20, according to the real-time billionaires list.

Given the VN-Index plunge from 1,520 to 1,200 points and strong selling force over the last two months, steel maker Hoa Phat, listed on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE: HPG), had its stock value sink 26% since its peak in March.

This movement pulled Chairman Tran Dinh Long’s fortune down by $700 million, the biggest decline among Vietnamese U.S. dollar billionaires. However, Long remains the second richest in Vietnam by stock market assets, after Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong.

Other billionaires, namely CEO of Vietjet Air Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Chairman of Techcombank Ho Hung Anh, and Chairman of Masan Group Nguyen Dang Quang jointly recorded a decrease of over 10% in assets, amounting to $200-400 million.

The drop also derived from the recent decline of the stock market, with VJC (Vietjet), TCB (Techcombank), and MSN (Masan) failing to avoid the loop.

Vietnam’s richest person Pham Nhat Vuong, Chairman of Vingroup, recorded a decrease of $300 million, or 5%, from $6.2 billion in March.

Nova Group Chairman Bui Thanh Nhon is the only Vietnamese billionaire who maintained his assets since March. He was first time named on Forbes’s list this year, with a total wealth of $2.9 billion thanks to his holding of Novaland shares (NVL).

Tran Ba Duong, Chairman of Thaco Group and his family, remained in last place on the Vietnamese representatives’ list, observing their fortunes dropping by $100 million to $1.5 billion.

Forbes assesses an individual's wealth based on their holding stock price and exchange rate at a certain point in time. In addition to the annual list of the world's billionaires, the magazine also constantly updates the billionaire's net worth on the real-time billionaires list.