Vietnam's VinFast is now a publicly traded company in the US, and it's valued more than some of the world's largest automakers such as General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, and BMW – at least on paper.
The EV maker debuted on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol VFS on August 15 after completing a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Black Spade Acquisition.
The company soared in its debut as a public company, with its market capitalization exceeding that of General Motors ($45.8 billion) and Ford Motor Company ($47.9 billion) as traders flipped VFS shares. VinFast is worth about $85 billion after shares soared on its first stock market day, closing at $37.06 in New York.
That's up more than 270 percent from the SPAC's IPO price, and the market capitalization is more than triple the SPAC deal, which initially valued the company at about $23 billion.
According to Bloomberg, the share surge from the closing price of the SPAC on Tuesday makes the company the top performing de-SPAC to debut this year on a US stock exchange.
The massive valuation also makes VinFast worth more than Volkswagen ($69.7 billion), BMW ($69.4 billion), and more than Ford and Rivian combined ($67.5 billion) on paper in terms of market capitalization. However, VinFast is lagging BYD's market value of $94.3 billion and cannot compare with Tesla's $730 billion market cap.
Since VinFast is a low-float company, it has a small number of shares available for trading, with just 1.3 million shares of the SPAC remaining after redemptions. This means the stock's move and value are volatile.
According to regulatory filings, Pham Nhat Vuong, VinFast's founder and Vietnam's wealthiest man, controls about 99 percent of the company, partly via shares held by his wife and Vingroup JSC. As a result, the vast majority of shares are unavailable to investors, so very few people stood to gain from Tuesday's rally.
In addition, companies that merge with blank check firms typically experience rallies that die down a few trading sessions after a deal closes. Bloomberg data shows that de-SPACs that debuted this year have seen a median slump of about 45 percent, with 18 percent of them losing more than 70 percent of their value.
