Nguyen Duc Kien Big Guy

Three Vietnamese big guys arrested within 20 days

VietNamNet Bridge – The public has been dazed by the sudden news about the arrest of Nguyen Duc Kien, one of the most influential portraits in the Vietnamese business circle, and has started in surprise that three tycoons have been arrested just within 20 days of August. 

Nguyen Duc Kien

Nguyen Duc Kien - the big guy famous for shocking statements

The Ministry of Public Security arrested Nguyen Duc Kien on August 20 evening at his home, a villa in the West Lake area in Hanoi.

Kien has reportedly been arrested for his wrongdoings relating to three companies which have denounced the behaviors of Kien. These include the B&B Investment and Trade Joint Stock Company, the ACB Hanoi Investment Joint Stock Company and A Chau Hanoi Finance Investment Company Ltd.

Kien has been well known in Vietnam as a multitalented businessman. This explains why he succeeded in many different business fields and held important posts in businesses, from the chair of a bank to the chair of a bitumen joint venture, a shareholder of a of a fashion company to a chair of a football club.

In 1994-2008, Kien held the post of Deputy Chair of ACB Bank and once worked as the General Director of the bank for a period. In 2008, Kien and some other founding shareholders withdrew from the board of directors to form up a founders’ council comprising of six members.

Kien has been well known as a big investor in football. He was Chair of Hanoi ACB Football Club, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Professional Football Company. He recently made a lot of shocking statements believed to create a revolution in the Vietnamese football.

The Hai Phong’s famous tycoons

Pham Van Thu, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Thai Son Company and his son, Pham Hai Thanh, the two famous tycoons in the port city of Hai Phong were arrested on August 8, 2012.

The two big businessmen in the steel industry have been prosecuted for their behaviors of swindling and appropriating assets relating to the bank loans.

The arrest also caused a big surprise to the public, because the two businessmen were believed to “do business in a correct and legal way.”

In 1995, Thu established Thai Son Company which then specialized in trading scrap steel and old ship devastation. In 2007, Thu expanded his business by jumping into the shipbuilding sector, ingot steel manufacturing and real estate. At that time, the company had the average turnover of 4 trillion dong a year. 

In 2011, Thai Son was named in the list of the 500 private biggest businesses in Vietnam. It has been recognized as the biggest steel import and export company in Hai Phong City. The good reputation allowed the company to easily access bank loans. 

However, since the steel price fell down by 50 percent in economic crisis in 2008, Thai Son bogged down in difficulties with the big inventories of 80,000 tons, which then led to the loss of 250 billion dong.

Thai Son also incurred the loss in the contract with ALCII, a finance leasing company on building three ships. ALCII became insolvent and stopped disbursement.

The defeats, plus the overly high bank loan interest rate of 24 percent, has pushed Thai Son against the wall. It could not pay debts, leading the company’s debts reaching 752 billion dong by February 2012. Thai Son is still owing 180 billion dong to other seven companies.

However, Thu still tried to play tricks to obtain capital to maintain production by borrowing new loans to get money to pay for old debts.

SME Securities’ Chair

On August 2, Phan Huy Chi, Chair and CEO of SME Securities was arrested for his behavior of appropriating assets.

Pham Minh Tuan, Deputy Chair of SME Securities was also arrested on the same day.

Sources said that Tuan instructed his staff to forge documents to sign contracts on capital contribution to invest in a batch of stocks. He received 107 billion dong from an insurance company and could not pay money back.

Compiled by Kim Chi

Luxurious Penthouses cannot find Rich buyers Vietnam

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Luxurious penthouses cannot find rich buyers

VietNamNet Bridge – Though the supply of penthouses is limited with just several penthouses for every block building, penthouses in HCM City still have been left unsold. Especially, the market segment has been narrowed because a lot of investors have given up the game.

Penthouses have been decreasing dramatically in prices, because the demand has plunged in the context of the economic downturn.

Fifteen penthouses at the Thai An 3 and Thai An 4 on Nguyen Van Qua Road of District 12 in HCM City still have been left unsold. In the past, the apartments here were offered for sale at 16-17 million dong per square meter. However, though the prices have dropped to 13 million dong, the products remain unsalable.

Eight months ago, the projects’ developer had to rescue himself by turning the 15 penthouses into 30 standard apartments in a hope to sell them more easily.

The penthouses of high end projects are also unsalable. In 2009, Minh Hoang Real Estate Corporation bought 13 penthouses at The EverRich 1 project, but only several products have been sold. The penthouses here are offered to sell at 21.5-27.5 billion dong.

In the past, penthouses were considered “rare products” and the buyers of the penthouses were defined through lucky draws. However, the golden age of real estate developers is over. Buyers now have a wide range of choices.

The penthouses at The Estella in district 2 in HCM City have been offered for sale at 12.3 billion dong for each. Especially, the seller has promised negotiable prices and best preferences to buyers.

Meanwhile, the penthouses at Xi River View Palace in district 2 are being on sale at 1.2-1.5 million dollars.

In an effort to “liberalize” the capital “buried” in penthouses, the high end products have been offered to sell at the prices which are even lower than the prices of smaller apartments at the same projects

For example, in the secondary market, such as product at Chanh Hung project in district 8 is offered at 12.8 million dong per square meter, while a standard apartment has the price of 18-20 million dong per square meter.

Since the real estate market has fallen into decay, penthouses have become less attractive; real estate developers, when implementing new projects, now consider removing penthouses to make apartments more easily salable.

“We are building high grade apartment blocks in Tan Binh districts and we wonder if we should build penthouses,” said Marketing Director of the Tan Binh Construction and Investment Pham Thi Phuong Lien.

Lien said the market segment has been unceasingly narrowed, while penthouses have been unsalable in the last few years. Therefore, developers always have to have three design solutions to weigh the costs and the investment efficiencies.

Of the three solutions, only one suggests building penthouses, while the other two do not mention the expensive products, because of the too weak demand in the market.

“Penthouses would help increase the value of the projects. However, luxurious products are unsalable at this moment, while the low liquidity would put hard pressure on the investors,” Lien said.

Meanwhile, Montgomery Truong, a senior executive of Savills Vietnam, thinks that one should not look the penthouse market segment with short term vision.

He said that penthouses have been decreasing sharply in prices not only because of the decline in the real estate market, but also partially because of the low quality of the products.

In the golden age of the real estate market, penthouses were built at all residential blocks, including popular or medium-class projects. At that time, it was very easy to sell products.

However, since the market has become frozen, buyers have become choosier, and only perfect products can persuade them to spend so much money.

Thanh Mai

How the Rich in Vietnam spend their $$

VietNamNet Bridge – Having private aircraft, possessing islands, traveling in a Rolls & Royce, owning yachts and attracting the media like the portraits of the showbiz world – this is the common portrait of the Vietnamese millionaires.

The villas in West Lake area
Hanoi is the city which has the highest land price in the world, comparable with that in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Paris. Meanwhile, the land price in the West Lake area is considered the most expensive in Hanoi, which is called the golden land.

Leon Lai, a Hong Kong’s actor, could buy a villa with an area of 1000 square meters in Ruby Hill – San Francisco, with swimming pool and golf course, at five million US dollars. 

However, he would not be able to buy a land plot with the same area in Hanoi with the same sum of money. A real estate expert said that the land plots in the area are priced at no less than 40,000 square meters. However, even if accepting the sky high prices, one would still not be able to buy a land plot here, because of no seller.

As such, if Leon Lai wants to live in the West Lake area in Vietnam, with five million dollars, he can only buy a house with the area of 125 square meters.

In the West Lake area, there are the villas with hundreds of square meters in area, which have the sky high and logically enigmatic prices.

There is also a golden land area in HCM City – the Dong Khoi area in district 1. However, the land plots here have been reserved to do business, not for accommodation. Therefore, the West Lake area is considered the most wonderful area for people to live.

Hollywood’s stars like Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift and Mariah Carey are living in the villas worth 2.6-30 million dollars. However, if they want to live on the golden land in Vietnam, they would have to pay much higher for the same area of accommodations.

Private aircraft, yachts and luxurious cars

Doan Nguyen Duc, Chair of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai was recognized as the first Vietnamese person who owns a private airline, after he bought a Beechcraft King Air 350 in 2008 at 7 million dollars.

In fact, in Vietnam, there are many people rich enough to buy private aircrafts. Just two years later, local newspapers reported that Tran Dinh Long, Chair of the Hoa Phat group bought an aircraft at 5 million dollars.

In 2009, Diem My, a well-known actress in Vietnam, said on local newspapers that her husband was possessing a 2 million dollar yacht.

In fact, a lot of businessmen have luxurious yachts, including Dao Hong Tuyen, who is called the “King of the Tuan Chau Island”.

Meanwhile, nearly all the most luxurious car models have been present in Vietnam, from Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari 599 Fiorano GTB to Lamborghini Aventador, from Rolls-Royce Phantom Year of the Dragon, Maybach 62S, Audi R8 to Aston Martin Vanquish.

The rich people whisper in each others’ ears that the remaining luxurious models with Koenigsegg or Pagani have not been present in Vietnam not because Vietnamese millionaires cannot afford them, but because they do not fit the taste of the rich people.

Only very rich people can possess luxurious cars in Vietnam. They not only have to pay high for the luxurious cars, which would be much more expensive in Vietnam than in the manufacturers’ countries because of the high tax, but also pay high to run the cars.

Analysts believe that in Vietnam, the expenses to run a car is triple that in other countries in the world. A Bugatti Vevron, which is sold at one million dollars in the US, would be priced at 3 million dollars in Vietnam, or 60 billion dong.

VTC

The Wealthy VIP travelers of Vietnam

Vietnamese VIP travelers tend to choose outbound tours

July 1, 2011  about News, Travel

LookAtVietnam - VIP tourists are always ready to pay high to enjoy
high quality services. In recent years, they tend to choose outbound tours,
especially the ones to the Europe and the US.

 

When the name of Sofitel New York hotel appeared on newspaper because it
related to the scandal of the former leader of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
director of a travel firm in HCM City said: “We many times booked hotel rooms
for Vietnamese VIP groups of travelers. The lowest hotel room rate here is 500
dollars per night”.

However, the director said that as for VIP travelers, high prices do not
matter, while the main thing VIP guests want is the high quality of services.
Meanwhile, while using expensive products and services, VIP can show their upper
class.

VIP travelers now prefer going abroad
Managing Director of a travel firm, which specializes in providing high
grade outbound tours, headquartered in district 1 in HCM City, said that the
travel firm once got the order to organize a tour to the US with the expenses of
10,000 dollars per traveler.

The travel firm then arranged a flight with helicopter which allowed
travelers to admire New York from the air for ten minutes. During the trip, the
travelers stayed in a six-star hotel in Washington near the White House.

 

Also according to the director, the travel firm recently organized a tour
for another group of VIP travelers to Japan and the US with the tour fee of
15,000 dollars per traveler. There were also special orders, including the one
on organizing tour for a VIP group of travelers to Ireland. The travelers flew
on an aircraft specifically booked for them.

According to Nhan Hanh Nhon, Director of OSC First Holidays, said VIP
travelers always attach special importance to high grade hotels (the hotels
should be 5-6 star ones) and resorts (where the room rate is about 1500 dollars
per night).

Regarding meals and drinks, VIP travelers usually choose expensive meals
at high grade restaurants which are worth 2000-3000 dollars per table. Besides,
VIP clients always set detailed requirements.

For example, when traveling to Thailand, they want to have meals on the
highest floor of the 88-storey building. If they go to Hong Kong, they would
require having meals on a yacht; and if they go to Egypt, they would require
traveling on a five star cruiser on Nile river.

“When they accept the high tour fees which are double or triple that of
normal tours, they always require high quality services. Besides, the shopping
destinations also should be special with the sale items priced at several
thousands of dollars,” Nhon said.

An executive of Fiditour said that the travel firm once organized a high
grade tour to Dubai in Egypt, with the tour fee of 4000 dollars per traveler. As
the tour fee is much higher than the normal tours to the same destinations, the
travel firms had to satisfy the strictest requirements in the service quality,
from traveling, accommodation, meals to the excursion points.

 

Do Duc Tinh, General Director of Vietnam House, said that Europe now
attracts Vietnamese VIP clients. Some VIP travelers required that after they
arrived in Vienna in Austria at 4 am, they wanted to go the theater to listen to
a classical music performance. As the VIP clients accepted to pay high, the
foreign partner of the Vietnamese travel firm still could arrange tickets for
the performance, even though the tickets for the concerts were sold one year in
advance.
Domestic tours: few tours, few products

According to big travel firms in HCM City, VIP clients can be divided into
two groups – the rich travelers who travel with their own money, and the
travelers, who are officers or executives feasted by businesses.
In general, the number of travelers of the former group is lower than the
latter group and they spend less money.
VIP travelers always demand special tours with special tourism products.
Therefore, a lot of specific products have been designed to serve the clients.

For example, travelers can go on L’Amant yacht on Saigon-Chau Doc route
with 4-star service. Every traveler has to pay 1100 dollars for the tour and has
to book in advance.
According to Pham Ha, Director of Luxury Travel Vietnam, the requirements
set by VIP clients are diversified. Some like traveling on kayak on Ha Long Bay,
others like trekking in Sa Pa, while many want to relax at expensive resorts
like Evason Hideaway Nha Trang or Evason Hideaway Con Dao (Con Dao Island).
Source: SGTT

Price storm in no way hurts the rich | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

LookAtVietnam - In Hanoi,
luxurious shopping malls are still crowded, while luxurious items are still
selling well. Many Hanoians still do not change their shopping habit, though
many other people have to curb expenses.

While
common people are trying to fasten their belt and stay at home instead of going
shopping on weekends, which has made markets and shops deserted; high income
earners still flock to high grade shopping malls, where luxurious products are
displayed.

Luxurious
hotels on Ly Thai To, Dinh Tien Hoang streets and luxurious shopping malls
namely Parkson or Vincom are still full of visitors every day.

Ha, a
securities investor, who was seen considering a Gucci brand handbag, said that
the handbags worth tens to hundreds of millions of dong are still within her
reach. Sometimes Ha and her friends go together to luxurious shops to buy some
products to diversify her handbag collection.

“The price
storm has not come here,” says a cashier at Parkson shopping mall on Thai Ha street.
“The customers here still “throw money over the window”. They can spend tens of
hundreds of millions dong at once. You know, the number of visitors increases
by 10-15 percent this month”.

At Vincom Center
on Ba Trieu street;
a man was seen paying 43 million dong to buy a pair of glasses which were
introduced as imports from Japan.

The
saleswoman at Vincom
Center said that most of
buyers are Vietnamese people. She explains that foreigners do not come to Vietnam
just to buy glasses. As the products become much more expensive after they are
taxed when entering Vietnam,
foreigners buy the products in their home countries already. Meanwhile, such
luxurious products are favored by Vietnamese high income earners, who believe
that imports are always better than domestically made products.

“The pair
of glasses worth 43 million dong are made of precious materials, while buyers
get the two-year guarantee worldwide. Branded goods always have sky high
prices,” the saleswoman said.

Meanwhile,
luxurious restaurants have still been living well, because their main customers
– high income earners, have not been hurt by the price storm. The menu of a
luxurious restaurant on Le Thai To street shows that a ration of abalone for
two is priced at 1.4 million dong, while a bowl of shark’s fin soup is sold at
1,320,000 dong. It is estimated that a party here for six people would cost ten
million dong.

Hoa, the
receptionist of the restaurant, has affirmed that the restaurant has been
always crowded. Hanoians like organizing family parties at the restaurant.
“Many of our customers are loyal customers,” Hoa said, adding that tens of
millions of dong prove to be not big sums of money for high income earners.

Especially,
the manager of the restaurant has revealed that the number of customers has
increased by 20-30 percent recently.

The Capital
Garden Hotel has become famous as Hanoians flock there every day to enjoy a
special pho (noodle soup), called
“noodle soup with Kobe
beef”. Despite the exorbitant price of the special pho, at 850,000 dong per bowl, and the threat from the radiation
leak in Japan,
Hanoians still spend money on this pho,
which is 40 times more expensive than the normal pho.

Meanwhile,
outbound tours still can attract a lot of travelers. Phung Don, a member of
Ngoi Sao Dai Duong Travel Firm, said that “more and more travelers book
outbound tours, and that Ngoi Sao Dai Duong had to stop accept bookings on
April 19, because of the overly high demand.”

The people,
who still spend money on luxurious items in the context of an economic
downturn, said that using branded goods is a kind of … earning money.

Hung, who
likes wearing Calvin Klein clothes, said that clothing and style are the two
important things for him in negotiating with partners. Therefore, Hung feels
better in luxurious clothes. In fact, the money Hung can earn is much higher
than the sums of money he spends on the luxurious clothes.

Ha, who
purchased a Gucci brand handbag worth 20 million dong, said that as the stock
market remains lackluster, Ha’s income is not really good. However, using
branded goods has become a habit which she cannot give up.

“When using
branded goods, you will feel more self-confident,” she said.

Source: VnExpress, Tien phong

Hanoi: Rich men pay hundreds of USD for breakfast | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

VietNamNet Bridge – Unhygienic food is now a big problem in Vietnam. Some rich people are willing to pay a lot of money to have meals at luxurious restaurants to have safe food.

Some people often take a bowl of pho (Vietnamese noodle) which is priced VND750,000 ($37) as breakfast. On the weekend, they take their whole family to restaurants and spend several hundreds of USD for the breakfast.
For a half of the year, Thang, the owner of a real estate firm in Hanoi, has become a familiar customer of a restaurant of a hotel on Lang Ha Street. Thang goes to this restaurant to enjoy the famous pho there.
The restaurant offers six types of pho, which are priced from VND 70,000 to VND750,000 dong ($3.5-37) a bowl. At popular pho restaurants, the prices only range from VND20,000-30,000/bowl.
The pho at this restaurant is very expensive because it uses special beef, which is imported from the USA, Australia and Japan. A bowl of pho with Wagyu beef from Australia is priced VND220,000 ($11). The price is VND125,000 ($6.5) for a pho bowl with beef imported from the US and it is up to VND500,000-VND750,000 ($37) for pho with Kobe beef from Japan.
The restaurant manager told VietNamNet that he was unexpected to see such a high number of customers who choose the most expensive kind of pho here. Notably, they order the special pho for themselves, not for guests.
The price for a bowl of pho with Kobe beef is equivalent to a feast for four people.
Thang, who has become a regular of this restaurant for a half year, said that he chooses restaurants to avoid food poisoning.
“I don’t think that I go to this restaurant to show off my wealth. It is simple that I can pay VND750,000 for a pho bowl that I think it is safe and delicious,” Thang explained.
Thang visits this restaurant twice or three times a week. He also takes his family, including his parents, his wife and two children to this restaurant.
“The Vietnamese economy is developing strongly and there is a class of wealthy people, who don’t care about money. I often see families of three generations who come to my restaurant to eat our special pho at the weekend. They pay nearly ten million dong for the breakfast,” the restaurant owner said.
This restaurant has special customers who have ordered the special pho for two years. They have special seats there. The restaurant has 150 seats and they are all occupied from 7-9am, the time for breakfast.
Not only breakfast, wealthy men in Hanoi go to hotels to take lunch and dinner to feel safe.
Thuy Anh, PR manager of a big hotel in Hanoi, said that the hotel’s restaurants previously served foreigners but now the situation has changed. Many Vietnamese people, both individuals and families, go to the hotel for meals. The hotel has had to change its menus to serve these customers. The price is at least VND650,000-700,000 for a person.
The number of individuals and families going to luxurious restaurants to have safe and delicious meals is also rising. These restaurants have offered menus with a lot of vegetables and healthy food to serve the rich, who are not afraid to spend money to get the best for their health.
According to the Health Ministry, the ratio of people who contract cancer in Vietnam in 2010 is 181.3/100,000 for men and 134.9/100,000 for women. In 2000, the rates were 146.6 and 101.6/100,000.
The latest research conducted by the HCM City Cancer Hospital shows that one third of the cancer patients have problems with food.
Cam Quyen

US billionaire weds in Hoi An

US billionaire Richardand Andrew married Russian Marina Nacheva in a lavish ceremony at the Nam Hai resort in the ancient town of Hoi An in central Quang Nam province.

The wedding celebrations were held over five days from May 24 at a cost of over 1 million USD. The ceremony drew more than 200 guests from Russia , the US , the Republic of Korea and Hongkong ( China ).

“This is the wedding of rich people”, said Director Dinh Van Loc of the Viet Da Da Nang Company, one member of the wedding’s organisers, noting that the cost of a hotel room at the Nam Hai resort is at least 750 USD per night.

The bride and groom, who have known each other for 11 years, are investing in finance sector in Moscow , Russia .

Before the ceremony, Richardand and Marina released lanterns into the sky to pray for their unchangeable love.

The newly-married couple left Hoi An on the afternoon of May 29 to enjoy their honeymoon in Siem Reap province of Cambodia.

(Source: VNA)