Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast has filed for an initial public offering in New York in a bid to bolster its bold entry into the US market, the firm announced today.
in a statement, the upstart automaker, which is backed by Vietnam’s richest man Pham Nhat Vuong, said it hopes to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “VFS.” Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan “will act as lead book management managers and as representatives of the underwriters of the proposed offering,” the statement read. Nomura and BNP Paribas are also among the book brokers on the deal. If successful, the move would make it the only Vietnamese company listed in the US.
According to the statement, the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offer “have not yet been determined.”
“The valuation or size of our initial public offering will be subject, in part, to market conditions,” VinFast Chief Executive Le Thi Thu Thuy said in a separate statement today, Reuters reported. “VinFast will continue to monitor future fundraising opportunities as the market becomes more familiar with the VinFast brand and story,” he added.
The Vietnamese automaker, which launched in 2017, is preparing an aggressive entry into the US, where it hopes to capture a significant share of the EV market, which is projected to increase from around 5 percent of the total US vehicle market currently to 17.4 percent by 2027. To spearhead its American invasion, it has produced two all-electric SUVs, the VF8 and VF9, which include a battery leasing to reduce the purchase price and undercut its more established competitors on price.
as Reuters reportedThis week’s filing comes after the company filed a confidential filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in April, a month after it announced plans for the establishment of a $2 billion manufacturing facility in North Carolina. The 800-hectare complex will have an initial capacity to produce 150,000 EVs per year, as well as manufacture EV batteries and other ancillary components.
Today’s IPO announcement came two weeks after VinFast sent his first batch of vehicles to the United States. in a statement of November 25The firm said the shipment of 999 VF 8 electric SUVs was the first of 65,000 global orders and said it projected to sell 750,000 EVs annually by 2026.
There is no denying the ambition of VinFast. Even in the best of times, it will likely take years, if not decades, for the company to establish itself as a mainstay of the US auto market. But whether it succeeds or not, it’s a remarkable story. In the 1980s, if you had predicted that a company from isolated and conflict-torn Vietnam would invest hundreds of millions in the United States and create jobs for American workers within four decades, you would have been hard to believe.
VinFast has leaned heavily on this narrative, tying its own story to that of the rise of Vietnam in a big way. In the statement following the shipment of electric vehicles to the US last month, Nguyen Viet Quang, the company’s vice president and CEO, described it as “an important event for VinFast and Vingroup and a historic milestone that makes the company proud.” Vietnamese auto industry. He added: “We hope that when VinFast’s smart electric vehicles hit the streets around the world, they will help promote the image of a new, dynamic and progressive Vietnam among the global audience.”