Three trillion-dong businessmen without university degree

The total personal assets of the three businessmen, who are running the biggest Vietnamese corporations are roughly 9 trillion dong. The common characteristic of the three businessmen is that they do not have university degree.

The three most famous Vietnamese businessmen have been very succeeding in their business fields. However, they did not follow the university education for some reasons. Their stories can prove that university degree is not the most important thing that leads to success.

Doan Nguyen Duc, Chair of Hoang Anh Gia Lai

The Chair of one of the biggest corporations in Vietnam was born in 1963 in Binh Dinh province. Duc did not follow university education, and only finished high school. However, his will and business ideas are in no way inferior to any other successful businessmen in Vietnam.

In 1990s, Duc set up a small workshop, specializing in making tables and chairs for students, which has turned into the powerful Hoang Anh Gia Lai. The carpenter workshop has become a big corporation which operates in different business fields, from minerals, wooden furniture, rubber to hydropower and real estate.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s shares made debut on the stock market in December 2008. The total initial volume of listed shares was 180 million shares, while the figure has increased to 537 million with the market capitalization value of 16,067 billion dong.

Duc holds 48.32 percent of Hoang Anh Gia Lai stakes (259.67 million shares), worth 7763 billion dong, if considering that Hoang Anh Gia Lai shares were traded at 29,700 dong per share on August 10.

Duc came second in the 2011’s list of the 100 stock millionaires published by VnExpress newspaper. Hoang Anh Gia Lai has reported the profit of 49 billion dong.

Le Phuoc Vu – Chair of Hoa Sen Group

Vu, born in 1963 in Quang Nam province, started his business very soon. And he also did not have university degree.

In 2001, Vu set up Hoa Sen Joint Stock Company in Binh Duong province with the modest chartered capital of 30 billion dong and 22 workers. The main business activities of the company were importing and producing metal, wooden and plastic roofs.

In December 2008, Hoa Sen’s shares were officially put into transaction on the bourse with the initial chartered capital of 570.4 billion dong. There are 98 million Hoa Sen shares in circulation with the market capitalization value of 1834 billion dong.

Hoa Sen Group’s Chair now holds 39 million shares, or 39.79 percent of the chartered capital of the company. With the share price at 18,300 dong per share on August 10, Vu now has the stock assets of 730 billion dong.

Hoa Sen is one of the few steel manufacturers which still can make profit in the current difficulties. The group has reported the post tax profit in the last nine months (its fiscal year begins on October 1, 2011) was 288 billion dong.

Duong Ngoc Minh, Chair of Hung Vuong Seafood Company

The prospectus of the Hung Vuong Seafood Company submitted to the State Securities Commission (SSC) shows that Minh finished high school and his professional qualification is aquaculture.

The predecessor of the Hung Vuong Seafood Joint Stock Company was the Hung Vuong Company Ltd established in 2003 in Tien Giang province with the chartered capital of 32 billion dong. At that time, Hung Vuong maily processed frozen fillet tra fish for export.

In 2007, Hung Vuong turned into a joint stock company with the chartered capital of 120 billion dong.

Hung Vuong’s shares entered the bourse in November 2009. About 66 million shares are now in circulation with the market capitalization of 2244 billion dong.

With 23.4 million shares, he now has the stock asset valued at 810 billion dong.

One dollar is equal to 21,000 Vietnam dong.

Thanh Mai