With total assets worth VND 7,364 billion, Pham Nhat Vuong, wife, brothers and sisters become the richest family on the stock market in 2008, according to local newspaper VnExpress.


There is a growing tendency for members of the same family to hold shares of the same company. Statistics showed that 142 members of the 30 richest families own VND 34,515 billion worth of stocks, or 12% of the total market capitalization value.


VnExpress, for the first time, has announced a list of the 30 richest families on the stock market 2008, which exists together with the list of the 100 richest stock millionaires, and the list of the 50 richest women. The database which VnExpress refers to is there to build up the list as the prospectus and information exposed by listed companies on Hanoi and HCM City bourses.


In the prospectuses of the 310 listed companies VnExpress surveyed, there are approximately 550 families with 1,400 members. Most of them own the same shares as people who have relations with inner shareholders, while many also join the boards of management or directors. This is a common characteristic which can be easily seen in many private-owned companies in Vietnam.


By December 31, 2008, the volume of shares that the members of the 550 families are holding had reportedly reached VND 37,400 billion, or 84% of total assets of nearly 4,000 individuals that appeared in the prospectuses of listed companies. The 30 richest families are holding the volume of shares worth VND 34,515 billion.


The persons who head the 30 richest families all appear on 2008’s top 100 stock millionaires. They work in for the 13 enterprises whose shares are considered to be blue chips, including Vincom (real estate developers), Vinpearl (trade and tourism), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (multi-field group), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Sacombank and FPT (information technology). Hoa Phat group (HPG) has six families listed on the top 30 families, while FPT has five, and ACB has four.


Pham Nhat Vuong, senior staff of Vincom and Vinpearl, now being listed on the HCM City Stock Exchange, ranks second on the list of top 100 stock millionaires with the total asset of VND 5,225 billion. However, the total assets of Vuong, his wife, sister and wife’s brothers and sisters have reached VND 7,364 billion, which helps name his family as the richest family on the stock market in 2008.


Of the seven members in Pham Nhat Vuong’s family, three are senior employees of Vincom and Vinpearl.


Chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai group, Doan Nguyen Duc and his family, ranks second on the top 30 list. Duc’s mother and five brothers and sisters are holding Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s shares, but only Doan Nguyen Thu, brother, and Duc are managing the group. Duc and Thu are the members who hold most of the shares, worth VND 6,300 billion, while the total asset of the family is VND 6,330 billion.

The 10 richest families