US’s Forbes magazine has just announced the list of the world’s richest billionaires in 2022, of which Vietnam has 7 billionaires, the highest number so far despite the pandemic and war affecting the world in the past year.
Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vingroup – the group that owns the car company VinFast, is still the richest person in Vietnam, while the Southeast Asian country has another billionaire appearing this year’s Forbes list – Chairman of Nova Group Bui Thanh Nhon. Among Vietnam’s 7 billionaires, Mr. Vuong is the only one whose property value has declined.
With a fortune of $6.2 billion, down $1.1 billion from last year, Vuong dropped to 411th on this year’s list, from 344th on the 2021 list.
Mr. Vuong, who started a business of instant noodles in Ukraine in the 1990s before returning to invest in real estate and then expanding into other areas in Vietnam, is the first Vietnamese billionaire being listed on the Forbes list with a total asset of $1.5 billion on the 974th position in 2013.
Chairman of Hoa Phat Steel Corporation Tran Dinh Long is the second richest person in Vietnam with a fortune of $3.2 billion, ranking 951. Five years ago, Mr. Long’s fortune was only $1.3 billion and the chairman of Hoa Phat was removed from Forbes’ billionaire’s list for 2 years before returning and ranked at 1,444 in the 2021 list.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of low-cost airline VietJet Air, continues to be the only female billionaire in Vietnam honored by Forbes. Ms. Thao, who is also Vietnam’s first self-made female billionaire, ranks at 984th with a fortune of $3.1 billion, equivalent to 2018 levels before falling three years later. This is the sixth time that Thao has entered the list of billionaires of Forbes.
Both Mr. Vuong, Mr. Long, and Mrs. Thao are in the Top 1,000 richest people on the planet.
Mr. Nhon, a real estate billionaire, entered the Forbes list of the world’s richest people for the first time this year. With a fortune of $2.9 billion, the founder and chairman of Nova Group and also the chairman of the board of directors of NovaLand Real Estate Investment Group is ranked 1,053.
The remaining Vietnamese billionaires, who have appeared on Forbes’ list since last year, also include Techcombank Chairman Ho Hung Anh, Masan Chairman Nguyen Dang Quang, and Thaco Chairman Tran Ba Duong, respectively with assets worth $2.3 billion at 1,341, $1.9 billion at 1,579, and $1.6 billion at 1,818.
The method chosen by Forbes to include in the list of billionaires is to estimate the size of an individual’s wealth based on the value of stocks and exchange rates as of March 11.
The US still leads the world with 735 billionaires with a total net worth of up to $4.7 trillion, of which Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the world’s richest billionaire with $219 billion.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, ranks second with $171 billion in total net worth. Bernard Arnault is the only non-American billionaire in the Top 5 of the world’s richest people on this year’s Forbes list. The French billionaire, currently managing the soles of 70 fashion and retail brands, has a total net worth of up to $158 billion. In fourth and fifth place are Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, one of the most successful financial investors of all time, with a net worth of $129 billion and $118 billion, respectively.
Translated by Thoibao.de from VOA: https://www.voatiengviet.com/a/viet-nam-lan-dau-co-7-ty-phu-trong-danh-sach-cua-forbes/6517528.html
