In the immortal words of Sir Isaac Newton, "wow."
VinFast Auto VFS learned on Aug. 16 that what goes up really must come down after the Vietnamese electric vehicle maker saw its shares slip one day after going public.
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The company opened at $22 on its first day of trading, more than double the initial price of $10, and soared to end the day at $37.06 for a gain of over 68%.
"It’s a big milestone for us to be listed in the U.S. The listing is going to open access to the capital markets for us in the future,” VinFast CEO Lê Thị Thu Thủy, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” earlier that morning.
Shares more than tripled, giving the company a market value of roughly $86 billion, the Wall Street Journal noted citing data from Refinitiv.
Few Shares Available
In comparison, General Motors (GM) -) had a market capitalization of $45.8 billion at the end of the day, while Ford’s (F) -) stood at $47.9 billion.
But things kind of went south on the second day, and shares of Vinfast fell quickly to finish down nearly 19% to $30.11.
Vinfast went public after merging with special-purpose acquisition company Black Spade. More than 90% of the SPAC's investors pulled their money out of the deal before it was completed, the Journal said, with a nod to data provider SPAC Research.
That left very few shares available for trading the last two days and set the stage for huge stock-price moves where a limited amount of buying and selling swings the shares.
The VinFast VF 8 City Edition Eco has a range of 207 miles (333 km), while the City Edition Plus has a range of 191 miles (307 km), according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s website, which several auto news sites described as “disappointing.”
Social media sustainability influencer Sawyer Merritt said on Aug. 14 on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "VinFast said their EVs finally have their official EPA ratings, and they're terrible."
Focusing on SUVs
It was back in November when VinFast announced it was sending its first batch of 999 VF 8s, the company's 5-seater electric SUV, to America aboard the Silver Queen, a Panamanian charter ship.
The following month, VinFast said it had filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
VinFast said in its SEC filing that it expected to remain competitive "by focusing on SUVs, the most popular consumer vehicle segment, and including in our products top-tier technology and luxurious outfitting that is not standard for similar vehicles at our price points."
The company opened its first U.S. showrooms in 2022 in California and has been moving to expand its operations across the U.S., with plans to spend $2 billion to build a new EV factory in North Carolina.
VinFast got its start building gasoline-powered vehicles in 2019, including a rebadged version of the Chevy Spark called the Fadil, but since has transitioned to EVs.
Established in 2017, VinFast is part of the VinGroup conglomerate, which was founded by Pham Nhat Vuong, Vietnam's first billionaire.
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