Phung Anh Tuan - portrait of the boss behind F88: From hacker to CEO of a million dollar "pawn" chain

Once a famous hacker in Vietnam, Phung Anh Tuan then had a chance to start a business. From not being able to pay staff salaries to pawn, Phung Anh Tuan then gradually saw the potential from the job and from there became a million-dollar CEO.

Phung Anh Tuan (nicknamed Tuan Pat) was born in 1984 in Phu Tho province, volt is considered a "heavyweight" hacker in the national technology world, actively imprisoning a security organization. Phung Anh Tuan studied at Hung Vuong High School for the Gifted and was also an excellent student of Hanoi University of Business and Technology.

According to information from the National Registration Portal, Mr. Tuan is currently the legal representative of the F88 business joint stock company (founded in 2016). Mr. Tuan is also a representative of F88 Investment Joint Stock Company, which was established in 2015, this is the parent organization of F88 Business Joint Stock Company.

Leaving university, Tuan worked as an information technology officer for a number of large corporations such as VASC, Viettel, and Hipt. After that, Tuan quit his job and started a business to establish a network security organization in 2003, the first start-up in the field of security and safety in Vietnam. By 2018, this place is now in the top "Asia's Top B2Bs". This has helped Phung Anh Tuan strengthen his position in the field of information technology.

Talking about the opportunity to switch to the pawn industry, Tuan once said that, at the beginning of his business, because he could not afford to pay staff salaries, he often brought his belongings to pawn. Thanks to that, Tuan realized the potential of this field and started working.

"The early period was still very difficult, sometimes you had to go pawn to pursue your passion and then realized that the pawn market is extremely potential and there are still many opportunities to develop professionally and differently. if I know how to combine my technological advantages into business activities, but it will not be until 5 years later that I have enough 'time, location, and human harmony' to do it," Tuan said.

F88 Business Joint Stock Company was born on June 30, 2013, the head office is located in Hanoi. This pawn system has been invested by two major investment funds in the world, Mekong Capital and Granite Oak. Initially, this place had a charter capital of 54.5 billion VND. In which, F88 Investment Joint Stock Company (F88 Invest) holds the dominant position, with an ownership rate of up to 99.99% of charter capital. After many times of capital increase, updated to October 2022, F88 has a charter capital of 566.9 billion dong.

Meanwhile, F88 Invest was established in November 2015, with its head office at a number of houses on Hung Vuong street, Viet Tri bar, Phu Tho province. Updated to November 2022, the capital scale of F88 Invest reached VND 69.88 billion. With more than 600 transaction offices, F88 is now present in 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

Previously, at the end of 2021 on his personal Facebook page, Mr. Phung Anh Tuan shared pictures of a luxurious villa with a usable area of 700 m2. Single villas in this urban area cost from VND 36 billion to VND 124 billion. The villa with a total area of 700 m2 impresses many people thanks to its marble tiles, luxurious furniture from one of the world's leading interior brands.

The villa is likened to a 6-star hotel, designed in a contemporary, minimalist style with luxurious and sophisticated accents. Accompanied by a series of high-class function rooms such as swimming pool, relax room, kitchen, living room and resting place, ... of this villa also make many people overwhelmed.

On March 6, at the Van Phon Tower building (Nguyen Oanh street, Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City), the police of Ho Chi Minh City executed orders to freeze and search the F88 Business Joint Stock Company. This move was made after the time the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department cooperated with the Go Vap District Police to investigate and record a complaint about the F88 Business Joint Stock Company carrying out lending activities to expropriate assets.

As reflected by many people, "hiding" under the guise of grandeur, in fact, the inner workings of the F88 system are pawn loans in the style of "black credit". Currently, F88 is lending with interest rates ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 VND/1 million/day (equivalent to 4.5 - 7.5%/month or 54 - 90%/year).

F88 Finance has its head office on Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan Trung Ward, Thanh Xuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi, founded by CEO Phung Anh Tuan in 2013, provides loans in the form of mortgages for cars, motorbikes, phones, laptops...

According to information from the National Registration Portal, F88 business shares was established in 2016, with a charter capital of VND 566.99 billion. Dan Tri cites the announcement of information on investment opportunities in F88 corporate bonds in 2020 to reveal more about the ownership structure of this business. In which, Mr. Phung Anh Tuan holds 20% of the shares. Mekong Capital Investment Fund holds 41.8%. The Granite Oak Fund holds 12.9%. Recently, F88 has successfully raised 50 million USD from 2 foreign funds. This may change the shareholder structure of the company.

In addition, Mr. Tuan, F88's board of directors includes 6 people including: Deputy General Director Nguyen Van Tuyen. Mr. Tuyen used to be the Chief Technology Officer of Vietnam Cement Group. Deputy General Director Ngo Quang Hung is the co-founder of F88. Mr. Hung is introduced as having over 15 years of experience in the field of consumer finance.

Mr. J.Alan Barron used to work as CEO and General Manager at First Cash Financial in the US with more than 2,000 pawn branches in the US and Latin America. 2 representatives from Mekong Capital fund are Mr. Nguyen Anh Quang and Ms. Do Thi Khanh Van. The representative of Granite Oak fund, Mr. Simon Wagner, was introduced as having more than 20 years of experience in investing and subleasing properties at Morgan Stanley.

How does F88 do business?

According to the report of investors buying F88 bonds of Mirae Asset Securities, F88's business activities include mortgage of assets and another segment is insurance agency.

In 2020, the average value of a mortgage contract of F88 is VND 13 million. F88's lending interest rate is introduced at less than 20%/year, excluding storage costs and asset appraisal costs. Figures for the first 6 months of 2020 show that F88's motorcycle mortgage revenue is 115, 6 billion dong, car mortgage is 38.6 billion dong, other property mortgage is 13.4 billion dong, other revenue is 46.3 billion dong.

F88's revenue and other sources of revenue in 2019 increased by 2.8 times compared to 2018 and 9.5 times compared to 2017. In which, motorcycle mortgage is the segment that brings the largest revenue for F88, accounting for 69.9% in 2021. Auto mortgage segment will account for 22.9% of revenue in 2021.

In the period of 2019-2021, the compound growth rate of F88's new open interest growth is up to 82%. The case is currently being investigated by the police.