{"id":1160,"date":"2014-04-01T15:08:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T15:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housing.vn\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2014-04-01T15:12:39","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T15:12:39","slug":"vietnams-lone-billionaire-opens-mega-underground-mall-hanoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/vietnams-lone-billionaire-opens-mega-underground-mall-hanoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam&#8217;s Lone Billionaire Opens Mega Underground Mall In Hanoi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On July 26, thousands of Vietnamese shoppers\u00a0flooded the giant underground shopping mall in Hanoi owned by Vingroup\u00a0 of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/profile\/pham-nhat-vuong\/\">Pham Nhat Vuong<\/a>, the country\u2019s first billionaire.<\/p>\n<aside data-position=\"3\">\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/michaelnoer\/2013\/03\/04\/vietnams-first-billionaire-and-the-triumph-of-capitalism\/\"> <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/b-i.forbesimg.com\/thumbnails\/blog_933\/pt_933_2120_o.jpg?t=1378833608\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" \/>\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The new attraction, touted as Asia\u2019s biggest underground retail and entertainment complex, covers a total area of 230,000 square meters.\u00a0 The mall is 95% filled up with about 600 shops opened in time for the grand opening. There\u2019s also a water park, a 3,000 square meters ice rink for ice skating, game centers, movie theatres, and a \u201cfood street\u201d with about 200 restaurants.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe that Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, with many novel features and facilities, will be an ideal shopping, entertainment, and recreational destination for Hanoians as well domestic and international visitors to the capital,\u201d Le Thi Thu Thuy, Vingroup\u2019s CEO said at the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The mall is a part of a bigger real estate development by Vingroup in the center of Vietnam\u2019s capital, called Royal City. In an interview with Forbes earlier this year,\u00a0 (see profile story of Pham Nhat Vuong), Vuong, chairman of Vingroup, said that 70% of 4,500 condo units at the development have been sold.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in May, a consortium led by an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, committed to invest $200 million in Vincom <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/retail\/\">Retail<\/a>, Vingroup\u2019s retail property business. The investment valued Vincom Retail at approximately\u00a0 $1.1 billion. This is a subsidiary company under Vingroup, a listed company where Vuong and family controls over 60%.<\/p>\n<p>With the opening of this new mall, Vincom Retail has become Vietnam\u2019s largest owner and operator of shopping malls, which include world class shopping, recreational and dining facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see development opportunities everywhere in the country,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/luisakroll\/2013\/07\/28\/vietnams-lone-billionaire-opens-mega-underground-mall-in-hanoi\/\">Vuong said in earlier interviews with Forbes<\/a>.\u00a0 Vuong was born in Hanoi and studied in Russia during the late 80\u2032s. He made his first fortune building a instant food company in Ukraine before moving back to Vietnam and investing in real estate. He is worth an estimated $1.4 billion, his company Vingroup, listed on Vietnam stock exchange, has a market cap of $2.8 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 26, thousands of Vietnamese shoppers\u00a0flooded the giant underground shopping mall in Hanoi owned by Vingroup\u00a0 of Pham Nhat Vuong, the country\u2019s first billionaire. \u00a0 The new attraction, touted as Asia\u2019s biggest underground retail and entertainment complex, covers a total area of 230,000 square meters.\u00a0 The mall is 95% filled up with about 600&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions\/"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions\/1164\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=1160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housing.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words\/?post=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}