Stock index keeps falling, billionaires’ assets evaporating

Since the stock prices keep decreasing, the huge assets of stock billionaires have eroded.

Multi-billions of dong vanished into the air

In the list of the 10 richest stock billionaires in 2010 includes familiar names such as Doan Nguyen Duc, Chair of the Hoang Anh-Gia Lai Group, who is holding the volume of HAG shares worth 11,366 billion dong, or 583 million dollars, and Dang Thanh Tam, Chair of the Saigon Investment Group (SGI) who has 4,042 billion dong worth of shares.

The list also includes a newly emerging name – Pham Nhat Vuong – the member of the board of directors of Vincom and Vinpearl, who is holding the VIC and VPL share volume with the market value of over 15,215 billion dong, or 780 million dollars. Tran Dinh Long, Chair of the Hoa Phat Group and Ha Van Tham, Chair of the Dai Duong Group both have also been named in the list.

At the time when the 2010 list of stock billionaires was released, the top 10 richest stock billionaires held the volume of shares worth 27 trillion dong, or 50 percent of the total share value in the market.

On July 25, the market witnessed a 3-year new record, when the trading volume of the two Hanoi and HCM City bourses was just 305.8 billion dong, far below the 500 billion dong threshold, which is considered the safety line. The HNX Index not only has dropped dramatically to the deepest low which was once seen in the 2009 crisis.

A question has been raised that what has happened with the assets of the stock billionaires, when the stock index keeps falling? General Director of big securities company said he keeps indifferent to the information about the assets of the billionaires.

“I personally have never been interested in the ranking of stock billionaires. The share holders just simply represent their enterprises. They cannot sell shares at any times they want, therefore the shares they are holding are just “virtual money”,” the director said.

He has also affirmed that securities investors never care about the assets of stock billionaires and their rankings.

However, the director, who acts as the investor, manager of a securities company, and a businessman as well, said that it is undeniable that the majority of the shares being held by the top 10 “big guys” in the stock market are the blue chips, and that they are the persons holding the shares with the highest capitalization value in the market. And whether one likes it or not, there always exists a quiet race for the high rankings.

The director went on to say that with the current downtrend, the assets of a lot of billionaires have been “evaporated”. A lot of shares have seen the prices decreasing significantly. HAG, for example, is now traded at 34,000 dong per share instead of 77.500 dong, while the price of KBC has dropped from 33,000 dong to 17,400 dong, PDR from 33,900 to 24,600 dong.

However, some shares have seen the prices increasing, including VIC, the price of which has increased from 94,000 to 107,000, or VPL, from 41,000 to 90,000 and MSN from 71,000 to 96,500 dong.

What will the 2011 list of stock billionaires be like?

The director has revealed that though some businessmen are considered one of the richest stock billionaires, in fact, they do not keep such the assets, because their shares or real estate have been mortgaged at banks for bank loans.

It would not be a surprise at all if one day, the directors of chairs of big companies are found as bogging down in debts. “They are leading their enterprises, and it is their responsibility to maintain the normal business, despite the current big difficulties.

“If calculating the liabilities and assets, and inventories, one would see that the assets of many enterprises have been eroded,” he said.

An expert, who asked to be anonymous, has predicted that there would be no considerably changes in the names and the ranking of the top 10 stock billionaires in 2011. “Real estate firms’ owners would still get high positions in the list of stock billionaires, and their assets may still increase. However, new names would appear in the next two or three years – the businessmen in consumer goods production,” he predicted.

Source: Tien phong

Tags: vietnam stock, Vietnam stock market, VNindex