The VN Index has been continuously creating new bottom
lines, making billions of VND in the stock market belonging to a large
number of millionaires ‘vanish into the air.’ In the last year, the
index fell from 927 points on December 28, 2007 to 322 on October 28,
2008.


Dang Thanh Tam, Chairman of the Saigon Investment
Group, who topped the VN Express newspaper’s 2007 list of 100 stock
millionaires, is holding 45 million KBC shares and 5 million ITA
shares, which means he now has the stock assets of VND 2.4 billion, a
decrease of VND 3.9 billion from the end of 2007.


Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the Management Board of
the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technologies (FPT), who
topped the 2006 list with 7.6 million FPT shares, now has VND 500
billion, which means VND 1.2 billion has disappeared after 10 months.


Though Hoa Phat Group has been performing well with
the profit of VND 1.1 billion in the first nine months of 2008, but Hoa
Phat Chairman Tran Dinh Long has still lost VND 1.8 billion when his
shares’ values dropped from VND 3.5 billion to VND 1.6 billion.


Doan Toi, Chairman of the Management Board of Nam Viet
Joint Stock Company, who is holding 30 million ANV shares worth VND
2.64 trillion at the end of 2007, has seen his assets drop to VND 600
billion.


Toi’s colleague, Truong Thi Le Khanh, Chairwoman of
Vinh Hoan Seafood Joint Stock Company, has 18 million VHC shares which
were worth VND 1.1 trillion in early 2007, and are now worth VND 370
billion.


The assets of Chairman and General Director of the
leading securities company Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI), Nguyen
Duy Hung, have also been estimated to have undergone the loss of
several billions in VND due to the sharp falls of SSI shares.


A lot of big names, who are the key shareholders of
listed companies, holding the blue-chips, and once were listed in the
top 20 stock millionaires, such as Nguyen Duc Kien (Asia Commercial
Bank - ACB), Dang Van Thanh (Sacombank), Tran Le Nguyen (Kinh Do
Group), and Dang Hoang Yen (Tan Tao Industrial Zone Development Company
- ITA), have also lost hundreds of billions in VND due to the dramatic
falls in stock price.


Chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, Doan Nguyen Duc,
has also seen his assets decrease by VND 12 trillion, compared to the
time when he sent words of his plans to buy the Arsenal Club. Duc holds
65 million of unlisted Hoang Anh Gia Lai shares. More than one year
ago, the shares were traded at VND 240,000/share, but now they are
trading at VND 60,000, which means that Duc’s total assets have fallen
to VND 4 trillion.


Duc is still listed among the richest people in Vietnam. He is the only man in Vietnam who has a private aircraft.


Though the assets of the businessmen have decreased considerably, they are still listed as the richest people in Vietnam.


Most of the enterprises managed by the businessmen
have earned big profits in the first nine months of the year. Hoa Phat,
for example, gained a profit of nearly VND 1.1 billion, FPT gained VND
850 billion, ACB earned VND 1.4 billion, ITA earned VND 580 billion,
and ANV earned VND 250 billion.


Big businessmen around the world have also seen their
assets become smaller. Bloomberg has reported that Russian billionaires
have lost US $230 billion just within five months, from May 19, 2008 to
October 6, 2008 as the Russian financial market has fallen into the
worst crisis it has seen in the last 10 years.


Roman Abramovich of the Chelsea Club has lost nearly
US $20 billion, while the richest Russian person, Deripaska, has lost
over US $16 billion.


Hundreds of billionaires have disappeared from the
Forbes list of the richest people in the world due to the world’s
financial chaos.