By Nguyen Kieu Giang | Bloomberg
VinFast Auto Ltd. soared in a volatile first day of trading as the Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker looks to raise its profile and take on established car manufacturers.
The company’s shares doubled to $20.88 as of 10:06 a.m. in New York. The stock surged as much as 130% shortly after the market opened, triggering multiple trading halts.
See more: Vietnamese EV maker VinFast opens at Irvine Spectrum Center … and in Santa Monica, Commerce, too
VinFast, which has its U.S. base in Los Angeles, debuted on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol VFS after completing a merger with blank-check company Black Spade Acquisition Co., which valued the automaker at $23 billion. The company is backed by Vietnam’s richest man.
The listing caps VinFast’s years-long efforts to become a publicly traded company and puts it in the same arena as Tesla, Lucid Group and Irvine-based Rivian Automotive. A listed status may also pave the way for VinFast to raise more capital as it looks to expand in the US.
The Southeast Asian carmaker — one of the few Vietnamese firms to list in the US — broke ground on its North Carolina factory last month. The plant is expected to have an initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year, and the company plans to begin production in 2025.
VinFast has gotten off to a shaky start in the US. In May, the company recalled all the electric sport utility vehicles it had shipped to the country over a software defect. It’s expecting more operating and net losses in the near term as it scales vehicle production.
While EV makers have a particularly patchy record when it comes to blank-check mergers, VinFast is optimistic about its equity appraisal for the SPAC listing. The company said in a written statement to Bloomberg News last week that it saw potential for upside in its valuation.
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