Hoa Phat chairman falls off Forbes’ billionaire list

Chairman Tran Dinh Long did not make the cut after Hoa Phat's spectacular dive this year

Long currently holds 318 million shares or 25.15 per cent stake in Hoa Phat and his wife Vu Thi Hien has 92 million shares or 7.29 per cent. Accordingly, Long and his wife hold 410 million Hoa Phat shares, equalling 32 per cent stake.

The reason Long was removed from the list is the decrease in the share value of Hoa Phat. Notably, since March, the group’s share dropped by 25 per cent from VND47,659 to VND34,350 ($2.07 to $1.49).

Thus, with over 534 million shares, the value of Long’s shares decreased from VND24.45 trillion ($1.06 billion) to VND18.34 trillion ($797.39 million), a drop of VND6 trillion ($260.8 million).

Previously, in March 2018, Forbes magazine released the 2018 list of the world's richest people. Accordingly, Vietnam has four billionaires, twice as much than last year, including Pham Nhat Vuong – owner of real estate conglomerate Vingroup ($6.7 billion), CEO of budget carrier Vietjet Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao ($2.6 billion), Tran Ba Duong – known as the “Automobile King of Vietnam” ($1.7 billion), and Tran Dinh Long ($1.3 billion).

At the time, Long was named the world's 1756^th richest person with a net worth of $1.3 billion. He founded Hoa Phat as an equipment and parts distributor in Hanoi in 1992. The company is currently considered the biggest steel maker in Vietnam, providing the market with office equipment, steel pipes, and construction steel.

In 2017, Hoa Phat produced a record volume of finished steel products – three million tonnes – a year-on year increase of 25 per cent. Of this, construction steel accounted for 2.2 million tonnes, steel pipes for 600,000 tonnes, and galvanised steel for the rest.

Last year, Hoa Phat earned VND46.8 trillion ($2.03 billion) in accumulated revenue and VND8 trillion ($347.8million) in after-tax profit, signifying on-year increases of 38 and 21 per cent, respectively.