Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – VinFast, Vietnam’s ambitious electric vehicle startup, is gearing up to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange as early as next week through a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
The news sent VinFast’s parent company, Vingroup, surging nearly 7% to a new high for the year of around $3.06 per share on Friday. In a joint statement, VinFast and the SPAC, Black Spade Acquisition, revealed their intention to complete the merger by mid-August.
According to the statement, the post-merger equity value of the new entity is estimated at $23 billion – abandoning VinFast’s initial plans for a traditional IPO. Last year, VinFast announced its application for a U.S. IPO to list on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “VFS.”
As a newcomer aiming to compete with the likes of Tesla, VinFast was established in 2017 as a subsidiary of Vingroup – one of Vietnam’s largest conglomerates. The company already operates a 300,000 vehicle-per-year factory in Hai Phong and has shipped around 3,000 electric vehicles to the U.S. market.
VinFast also recently broke ground on a sprawling $4 billion electric vehicle plant in North Carolina, underscoring its bold ambitions to gain market share as the auto industry moves towards electrification. By merging with a SPAC, VinFast can fast-track its public listing and access crucial capital to fund its global expansion plans.