Vietnam’s 5 richest billionaires in 2024 – net worths, ranked: from VietJet Air boss Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao to Techcombank’s Ho Hung Anh – but which self-made man’s career started in a car factory?

28/04/2024

Disgraced property mogul Truong My Lan may have been the richest person in Vietnam at one point – before she was caught taking out billions in fraudulent bank loans
Tran Ba Duong’s Truong Hai Group has worked with the likes of Mazda, Peugeot and Kia, while Pham Nhat Vuong pivoted from instant noodles to electric vehicles via VinFast

According to the Forbes World’s Real-Time Billionaires List on April 25, the total assets of the five wealthiest individuals in Vietnam amount to some US$12.1 billion combined.

Despite this tremendous wealth, their combined assets still come in at significantly less than what disgraced property mogul Truong My Lan was ordered to repay by the courts. Recently sentenced to death on April 11, Truong has been ordered to return some US$27 billion, according to reports by BBC. The courts have little hope of recovering this sum in relation to US$44 billion in fraudulent loans she had taken out from the Saigon Commercial Bank though. Considering these numbers, Truong might have been the wealthiest person in Vietnam at one point.

Here, we look at Vietnam’s five billionaires and their road to earning their fortune – who each appear to have quite different stories, according to Forbes.

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5. Tran Ba Duong, 64

Net worth: US$1.2 billion

vietnam’s 5 richest billionaires in 2024 – net worths, ranked: from vietjet air boss nguyen thi phuong thao to techcombank’s ho hung anh – but which self-made man’s career started in a car factory?

Thaco’s founder and chairman, Tran Ba Duong

A self-made billionaire, Tran got his start working as a mechanic in an automobile factory before finding his niche within the same industry. When he founded Truong Hai Group in 1997 (initially known as Truong Hai Auto Corporation), his focus was on car sales, but he quickly shifted to focus on building an assembly line and working with foreign car manufacturers, including Kia, Mazda and Peugeot.

The company further expanded in 2008 when Singaporean company Jardine Cycle and Carriage – part of the Jardine Matheson multinational conglomerate, based in Hong Kong – bought a stake, allowing it to become one of Vietnam’s largest multi-industry holding corporations, with interests beyond the automobile industry. Currently known as the Thaco Group, the firm also invests in property, agriculture and logistics.

4. Ho Hung Anh, 53

Net worth: US$1.7 billion

Co-founder of Masan Group, Ho Hung Anh

Ho is the co-founder of Masan Group, which his friend and business partner Nguyen Dang Quang runs. They met while both studying in Russia. The Masan Group is one of the country’s largest private conglomerates, which operates several subsidiaries including Techcombank and Masan Resources, a mining operation.

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Ho is also chairman of Techcombank, a large commercial bank in Vietnam that went public in June 2018. Ho started investing in the bank, in which Nguyen was also an investor, in 1995; they took control in 2006.

3. Tran Dinh Long, 63

Net worth: US$2.3 billion

Chairman and founder of Hoa Phat Corporation, Tran Dinh Long

The chairman of Hoa Phat Corporation, Tran founded the equipment and parts company in 1992. The Hanoi native would grow his business to become the biggest steel producer in the country, with interests in all things construction-related – from steel pipes and construction tools to office equipment – becoming the Hoa Phat Group.

The company recently invested in a new US$3 billion factory in Dung Quat in eastern Vietnam, and is said to be further expanding its production capabilities to catch up with the country’s growing economy and booming construction industry needs.

2. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, 53

Net worth: US$2.7 billion

No 53 in Forbes’ The World’s Most Powerful Women list last year, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao

Taking the fortune she found in property, Nguyen, who placed at No 53 in Forbes’ The World’s Most Powerful Women 2023 list, spent years planning and researching within the aviation industry before launching budget airline VietJet Air, which she took public in 2017.

A year after listing her airline, as vice chairwoman of and investor in HDBank, Vietnam’s richest woman helped transition it to a public listed company on the Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.

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The self-made billionaire also has stakes in tourism and tourism-adjacent industries, including hotels, property and beach resorts.

1. Pham Nhat Vuong, 55

Net worth: US$4.2 billion

Pham Nhat Vuong happily announced his new electric motor-vehicle venture, VinFast, on his social media, in March 2020. Photo: @phamnhatvuong_vingroup/Instagram

Like some other billionaires in Asia, Pham found his fortune in food – in instant noodles, to be precise. Following his studies in Russia in the 1990s, Pham founded an instant noodle company in Ukraine before returning to home turf to build his empire.

He now chairs the Vingroup, one of the country’s largest conglomerates with a reach far beyond noodles. Its businesses include property and retail. More recently, the group ventured into electric vehicles with its subsidiary VinFast.

In 2023, Pham was declared the fifth wealthiest person in Asia by Forbes when he took VinFast public on Nasdaq. The group is heavily investing in infrastructure to support electric vehicles, investing US$400 million in charging stations that debuted in Vietnam in March 2024.