Queries around shareholders of FastGo and be

FastGo and be entered the market in 2018

Within a year of its launch in Vietnam, be – operated by Be Group – increased its charter capital from VND200 million ($8,700) to more than VND500 billion ($21.74 million). Moreover, despite being a co-founder of be, its former CEO Tran Thanh Hai has not contributed any capital to the company at all.

The situation of FastGo is similarly murky. After getting VND881 million ($38,300) of investment from the British Virgin Islands early last year, there has been no information regarding its shareholders.

CEO out of be's shareholder structure

Before Hai took the role of CEO at the company, the position was held by Nguyen Ngoc Bao Lam, another co-founder. Notably, Lam contributed half of the stakes at the beginning. The rest of stakes were held by Bui Huy Huong (25 per cent) and Ha Anh Tuan (25 per cent) whose positions remain unclear.

With constant fundraising rounds during the past two years, the ownership rate of these shareholders has been diminishing. Within four months of operation, Be’s charter capital grew to VND100 billion ($4.35 million) from VND200 million ($8,700). The figure hit VND300 billion ($13 million) by April last year and about VND515.7 billion ($22.4 million) in last August.

As be is developing rapidly, Be Group’s willingness to so swiftly lower ownership rates has raised eyebrows in the market. Be Group sold 66.7 per cent of its shares on April 18 and 41.8 per cent shares on August 8, 2019.

According to DealStreet Asia, some shareholders of VPBank in March last year poured capital into the ride-hailing platform. However, there has been little information about its ownership structure since then.

FastGo in the same situation

FastGo’s charter capital was first VND2 billion ($86,960) which then soon rose to VND2.4 billion ($104,350) in August 2018. Besides, its shareholder line-up at the time also saw several new faces like Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong (0.541 per cent), Ho Chuong (5.405 per cent), Nguyen Hoang Long (2.703 per cent), Dao Minh Phu (5.406 per cent), and Nguyen Thanh Son (2.703 per cent).

Accordingly, the ownership rate of its CEO Nguyen Huu Tuat and Nguyen Hoa Binh, CEO of Next Tech were 41.625 per cent each.

In January last year, an investor from the British Virgin Islands injected VND881 million ($38,300) into FastGo to seize 25.23 per cent of the stakes. Thanks to that, its charter capital grew to VND3.2 billion ($139,130). However, the ownership rates of shareholders have not been disclosed since then.