Vietnam electric-vehicle maker VinFast files for U.S. IPO

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Vietnam electric-vehicle maker VinFast files for U.S. IPO

In the United States, HANOI Vietnam's electric-vehicle maker VinFast filed for an initial public offering IPO to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker VFS to fund its expansion with a planned plant in North Carolina.

VinFast, which began operations in 2019, is about to expand in the U.S. market, where it hopes to compete with legacy automakers and startups with its two all-electric SUVs, the VF 8 and VF 9, including battery leasing to reduce the purchase price.

The company said it would convert to a Singapore public limited company and will be known as VinFast Auto Ltd for the IPO, while the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

Tuesday's filing follows VinFast's confidential submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC in April, a month after it said it would build a production plant in North Carolina with an initial projected capacity of 150,000 EVs a year.

VinFast, a unit of Vietnam's biggest conglomerate Vingroup, first flagged its U.S. IPO in April of last year, aiming to raise $2 billion with a valuation of $60 billion.

The market valuation for EV startups has cooled for the past year after some companies with sky-high valuations faced scrutiny, along with the current gloomy global economy.

In a separate statement released on Wednesday, VinFast Chief Executive Le Thi Thu Thuy said that the size of our IPO will be subject to market conditions.

The market will become more familiar with the VinFast brand and story as the market becomes more familiar with the VinFast brand and story, she said.

The IPO was one of the options that the company said was just one of the options to raise funds. In July it tapped banks to raise $4 billion to fuel its aggressive expansion.

The company had said it was aiming for an IPO in the fourth quarter of this year, but there was no time frame for the offering on Tuesday.

In May, Vingroup warned that the IPO may be delayed to 2023 due to market uncertainty.

Thuy said on Wednesday that VinFast intends to conduct an IPO after the SEC declares the registration statement effective, market conditions permitting, and that the company's primary objective was to successfully list VinFast on a U.S. stock exchange.

In late November the EV maker shipped its first batch of 999 cars to the United States, capping a five-year bid to develop an auto production hub in Vietnam for markets in North America and Europe.

VinFast expects to sell 750,000 EVs annually by the year 2026, as it has more than 65,000 orders in total.