Economic recession produces new tycoons

Economic recession produces new tycoons

In the crisis, a lot of big guys have fallen down from their pinnacle of success, turning moneyless. And also in the crisis, a lot of new names have appeared brilliant.

The man has been well-known among the finance investment circle for a long time, but he has only turned into an important figure recently after two noisy takeover deals.

Do Quang Hien, who has been known as the Chair of the Hanoi T&T Football Club and a finance investor, has become even more famous after the successful deal of taking over Habubank. The success has helped put the Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB), whose Hien is now the president, into a new height.

The image of Hien, who once injected his money in electronics, refrigeration engineering, motorbike manufacturing and mobile phone trading in 1990s, has become most brilliant than ever, especially after SHB got involved in the restructuring of Bianfishco, a big seafood company on the verge of bankruptcy.

Being a big shareholder with 50 percent of stakes, SHB is believed to help Bianfishco revive and develop in accordance with its name (Bianfishco’s Vietnamese name is Binh An, or “safe and sound”).

Hien said that the priority work he will do is to pay debts to the farmers who sold fish materials to Bianfishco before, and to restructure the debts. After Bianfishco revives and stabilizes its operation, it would increase the chartered capital to 1200 billion dong from the current 500 billion dong.

With firm steps, Hien is becoming one of the leading big guys in the finance investment sector in Vietnam. Prior to that, Hien’s plan to jump into the banking sector went smoothly, when T&T Group made capital contribution to become a major shareholder of the bank in 2000s.

The rapid development of SHB would surprise everyone. At the establishment moment, SHB was a small bank developed by a rural bank – Nhon Ai Bank in Can Tho city. Meanwhile, nowadays, it has a large network with the services reaching out to many localities in the country.

SHB has been known as the rural-origin bank which saw the total assets increasing most sharply by five times just within four years, from 14,400 billion dong to 71 trillion dong. The outstanding loans of the bank have also increased accordingly.

Just some months ago, Tram Be was an unfamiliar name to the public. However, things have become quite different recently. The name “Tram Be” has become so famous after the deals of buying Sacombank shares, thus leading to the changes of the power at the leading joint stock bank in Vietnam.

After the successful deals, Tram Be and his family members are now the members of the board of directors of Sacombank and Phuong Nam Bank. They are also the big bosses of well known companies such as the Phuong Nam Gold, Silver and Gemstone Company, Phuong Nam Securities, the Binh Chanh Construction and Investment Corporation, Trieu An Hospital and Son Son Seafood Company.

Be, who has been described as secretive, had not appeared on mass media until his big affairs became the focus of the public. Be is now one of the most influential personality at Sacombank, holding the post of Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors, after he left the post of Deputy Chair of Phuong Nam Bank, giving the post to the son Tram Trong Ngan. Another his son – Tram Khai Hoa – is now the member of the Board of Directors of Sacombank.

The case of Dang Van Thanh, former Chair of Sacombank, is a special one. Local newspapers wrote that he tasted the defeat in the “Sacombank war” after which his influences at the bank have reduced.

However, Thanh has become a very important figure in the farm produce processing industry. Analysts have said that it is now the new age of the sugar industry with Thanh and his family members holding high proportions of stakes at sugar companies.

vietnamnet