Andrew Moseman
- A Vietnamese electric vehicle maker is now worth almost as much as Ford and General Motors.
- VinFast shares soared more than 250% in a Spac-led debut Tuesday, leaving it worth $85 billion.
- The startup is yet to turn a profit and its first car shipments to the US have been criticized.
A Vietnamese electric carmaker is now worth almost as much as Ford and General Motors combined after its shares soared in their market debut Tuesday.
VinFast jumped 255% to close at $37.06 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, leaving the company worth $85 billion – far more than Ford ($48 billion), General Motors ($45 billion), or Chrysler Stellantis ($31 billion).
VinFast founder and chairman Pham Nhat Vuong is the richest person in Vietnam and owns about 99 per cent of the company.
The stunning market debut left the 55-year-old worth $44.3 billion — up $39 billion in just one day, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
VinFast is yet to turn a profit and its first shipments to the US were met with criticism.
"There have been some negative reviews," CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy told Bloomberg TV. "We take them very close to our heart, we reflect on the feedback from those reviews and we make our vehicles better."
VinFast delivered just 11,300 vehicles in the first half of this year, per a company presentation. That's a fraction of its larger competitors such as Tesla and BYD that delivered 889,000 and 1.26 million vehicles respectively in the same period.
The company went public via a special purchase acquisition company (Spac), where a shell company is formed to merge with the floating company. VinFast used Hong Kong-based blank-check firm Black Spade Acquisition to go public.
Shares in many Spacs have quickly come back down to earth after their market debuts as traders look to make quick profits, meaning VinFast's surge could also be short-lived.