Spending hundreds of billions to buy seaplanes, who is the owner of Thien Minh Group?

In a news that has attracted public attention, Thien Minh Group (TMC) announced that Hai Au Airlines, a subsidiary of the Group, will receive two seaplanes worth about 3.2 million USD each in Vietnam. Who is the Group's owner?

These are the first privately owned seaplanes in Vietnam. They were brought in for tourism purposes.

Thien Minh was established in 1994, the predecessor was a small travel company.

The name Thien Minh suddenly emerged in 2012 due to a large hotel takeover and was once mentioned many times in the case of... arresting Mr. Kien. At the time the news of Mr. Kien's arrest shocked public opinion, Mr. Kien held shares in many banks and businesses, including the name Thien Minh Company.

The chairman and CEO of Thien Minh Group is Mr. Tran Trong Kien, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).

Mr. Tran Trong Kien, Chairman and CEO of Thien Minh Group

According to Thien Minh's announcement, Chairman Tran Trong Kien is quite young, has graduated from many universities, and studied a major not much related to tourism and hospitality - Hanoi Medical University. In addition, Mr. Kien also has a bachelor's degree from Hanoi University of Foreign Languages ​​and a master's degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Mr. Kien is also introduced as a pioneer in developing adventure tourism in Vietnam.

Information that has attracted public attention in recent days appeared when Thien Minh Group issued a press release stating that Hai Au Airlines, a subsidiary of Thien Minh Group (TMG), will receive two seaplanes worth about 3.2 million USD each (equivalent to 45 billion VND).

According to plan, these two seaplanes will arrive at Noi Bai airport in August 2014 and begin operating for tourism, first on the Hanoi - Ha Long route from September 2014.

Hai Au is the first private airline to provide seaplane services in Vietnam. This type of business has developed strongly in the world but is still quite new in Vietnam.

According to Mr. Luong Hoai Nam, Deputy General Director of Thien Minh Group, CEO of Hai Au Airlines: “Instead of having to sit 3-4 hours by car from Hanoi to Ha Long, now with Hai Au Airlines' seaplane, customers only have to spend 30 minutes and experience watching the sea from a height of 150 meters to 3,000 meters, which is extremely interesting. We believe that seaplanes will bring a new and comprehensive experience to tourists, contributing to promoting and developing Vietnam's tourism in the coming time. With the expansion of Hai Au Airlines' seaplane business, TMG is gradually implementing its business development strategy with the goal of creating a comprehensive service complex in the travel and hotel industry with major brands such as Buffalo Tours, Victoria Hotels & Resorts, ivivu.com, Êmm Hotels & Resorts ...”.

The seaplane ordered by Thien Minh is said to be the most modern seaplane in the US, with a maximum capacity of 12 passengers, a flight speed of 300 km/h, and the ability to take off and land on water.

According to the plan, in the near future, Hai Au will deploy seaplane services in the Northern region (between Hanoi and Ha Long Bay), then expand to the Southern region (between Ho Chi Minh City and tourist destinations in Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Can Tho, An Giang, Con Dao, Phu Quoc).

Hai Au Airlines is the 6th private airline in Vietnam. Hai Au Airlines was founded by shareholders Thien Minh Group (majority shareholder) and Focus Travel Group. The airline focuses on seaplane services including: sightseeing flights on Ha Long Bay; service flights (Air Taxi) and specialized flight services according to customer requests.

Thien Minh Group (TMG) is currently the largest enterprise specializing in providing tourism and hotel services in Vietnam.

Every year, Thien Minh welcomes about 90,000 tourists to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand and serves about 200,000 guests staying at the group's hotels.

TMG's strategic goal is to become a leading company in the field of tourism and hotel services in Vietnam. With the advantage of owning a good, creative, transparent management system, abundant financial resources and cooperation/sharing of operating experience among member companies, TMG always believes that it will succeed in its development strategy.

The seaplane ordered by Thien Minh is about to arrive in Vietnam.

According to information on Thien Minh's website, TMG was recently honored in the list of 20 fastest growing companies in East Asia in 2014 as assessed by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) (a member of the World Bank) has recently decided to invest 14 million USD in Thien Minh Group to help Thien Minh continue to develop and implement strategies to develop tourism products and expand the Group's hotel chain nationwide.

According to reading the newspaper