HÀ NỘI — Forbes Việt Nam held a ceremony to honour the country’s 40 most valuable brand names in HCM City on Thursday.

The 40 brands have a total value of nearly US$8.1 billion, an increase of about 50 per cent compared to last year’s list.

The surge is attributed to the robust growth of Việt Nam’s stock market, which has driven up the average price-earnings ratio in most sectors. 

Nguyễn Bảo Hoàng, chairman of Interactive Media, the commercial representative of Forbes Việt Nam, said there had not been much change in the group structure in the list of the 40 most valuable brands in Việt Nam this year compared with 2017.

Specifically, consumer goods businesses still dominated this year’s list, while those in the finance-banking sector narrowed the gap as more commercial banks listed their shares on the stock market. 

Dairy giant Vinamilk maintained its top position, with an estimated brand value of $2.28 billion, much higher than the $1.7 billion last year. The company is followed by military-run telecom firm Viettel with $1.39 billion. State-owned Việt Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) took third position from Vingroup, Việt Nam’s largest real estate company. With a value of $416 million, VNPT appears in the list for the first time. 

Other brands in the top ten are the country’s biggest brewery Sabeco ($393 million), Vinhomes, the residential property arm of Vingroup ($384 million), Vinaphone, one of Việt Nam’s big three mobile operators and belonging to VNPT ($308 million), Vingroup ($307.2 million), food and beverage producer Masan Consumer ($238 million), Vietcombank ($177.9 million), and tech giant FPT ($169 million). Vinhomes and Vinaphone are also newcomers on the list. 

Forbes compiled the list by looking at brands’ incomes before and after tax based on their financial reports and data on the stock market. — VNS