BANGKOK, THAILAND – 2023/05/18: VinFast displays its vehicles at Future Energy Asia Exhibition 2023 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.
Nathalie Jamois | Lightrocket | Getty Images
VinFast‘s shares jumped after its U.S. trading debut, vaulting its total market value past some of the world’s largest automakers such as Ford, GM, BMW and Volkswagen.
On Tuesday, the Vietnamese electric vehicle maker listed on Nasdaq following the completion of its merger with the U.S.-listed special purpose acquisition company Black Spade Acquisition. A SPAC is a shell company that raises capital through an initial public offering for the purpose of acquiring an existing operating company.
Shares of VinFastclosed at $37.06 on Tuesday — 270% higher than Black Spade Acquisition’s IPO price of $10 and 68% higher than its Tuesday opening price of $22. Black Spade Acquisition went public in 2021.
VinFast shares were down 10% ahead of the open Wednesday.
Following the market debut, VinFast is now currently worth $85 billion, according to CNBC calculations. The SPAC merger previously valued VinFast at approximately $23 billion, according to a June filing with U.S. securities regulator.
Meanwhile, BMW and Volkswagen are both worth around $69 billion, according to Refinitiv data, with Ford at $48 billion and GM at $46 billion.
By market capitalization, Tesla is still the world’s largest automaker at $739 billion and Chinese rival BYD is fourth place with a $93 billion valuation.
VinFast is the automaking unit of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup and was founded in 2017.
SPAC is ‘just a way for us to get listed’
Analysts have previously said that SPAC shares are extremely volatile due to their speculative nature. Due to macroeconomic headwinds, many sponsors have been forced to scrap their proposed deals, sometimes even before the SPACs have been listed.
“We were ready to do a traditional IPO. We pursued the path for almost two years but the markets have been challenging so we decided to decouple the listing from the fundraising. We got the financial backing from our parent company and we went ahead with the listing by way of SPAC,” said VinFast CEO Lê Thị Thu Thủy, in a CNBC interview on Tuesday.
According to Vingroup, VinFast received a $2.5 billion boost in April from Vingroup and Vingroup’s chairman, Pham Nhat Vuong, to fund its global expansion.
When asked about the firm’s decision to list via a SPAC in unfavorable market conditions, Lê said that it was “just a way” to get listed.
“You saw how the market reacted when we opened today, right? I think it’s just a way for us to get listed in the U.S. We didn’t think of the reputation of SPACs,” said Lê.
In response to how VinFast plans to compete with the big players in a competitive market like the U.S., Lê said that there is enough market share for each player.
“[With] the whole world and U.S. in particular moving from internal combustion engines to EVs, there’s room for everybody.”
Clarification: The text of this story has been updated to stipulate that the 270% rise was from Black Spade Acquisition’s IPO price.
The Texas-based space company said in an updated prospectus Monday that it’s planning to sell about 16.2 million shares. The offering could raise up to $631.8 million.
Earlier this month, Firefly filed its plans to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “FLY.”
Its debut comes amid a renewed push in the space race, as billionaire-led companies such as Elon Musk‘s SpaceX funnel more money into space activities and startups try their luck at the public markets.
Space tech firm Voyager went public in June, while reusable rocket developer Innovative Rocket Technologies said it plans to debut through a $400 million special purpose acquisition company merger.
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Firefly’s public market launch also coincides with a revival in IPO activity as debilitating interest rates and an overhang from President Donald Trump‘s tariff plans begin to clear. Design software company Figma is slated to go public this week after raising its range.
Firefly makes rockets, space tugs and lunar landers, including satellite launching rockets known as Alpha. At the end of March, the company reported a sixfold jump in revenue from $8.3 million a year ago to $55.9 million.
The company also reported a net loss of about $60.1 million, up from a loss of $52.8 million a year ago, and said its backlog totaled about $1.1 billion.
Some of Firefly’s major backers include AE Industrial Partners, which led an early investing round in the company. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman invested $50 million in the startup this May, and Firefly says it has collaborated with Lockheed Martin, L3Harris and NASA.
Elena Nadolinski, founder and CEO at Iron Fish, and Dylan Field, CEO and co-founder of Figma, attend the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 7, 2022.
The company now expects shares to go for $30 to 32 each, up from the range of $25 to $28 that it disclosed on July 21.
The new range, announced in a regulatory filing, suggests Figma would be worth $17.6 billion to $18.8 billion on a fully diluted basis.
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That would still be below the $20 billion total that Adobe had offered when it announced plans to acquire Figma in 2022. The deal fell apart after regulators pushed back on competitive grounds.
Figma is among the most valuable privately held technology companies.
Financial technology companies Chime and Circle went public in June, and CoreWeave shares debuted in March. Circle and CoreWeave shares have since more than doubled in price.
The Huawei flagship store and the Apple flagship store at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, China, Sept. 2, 2024.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Huawei reclaimed the top spot in China’s smartphone market in the second quarter of the year, while Apple returned to growth in the country — one of its most critical markets — data released by technology market analyst firm Canalys showed on Monday.
Huawei shipped 12.2 million smartphones in China in the three months ended June, a rise of 15% year on year — equating to 18% market share. It’s the first time Huawei has been the biggest player by market share in China since the first quarter of 2024, according to Canalys.
Apple, meanwhile, shipped 10.1 million smartphones in the quarter in China, up 4% year on year and ranking fifth. It is the first time Apple has recorded growth in China since the fourth quarter of 2023, Canalys said.
Shipments represent the number of devices sent to retailers. They do no equate directly to sales but are a gauge of demand.
The numbers come ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings release this week, with investors watching the company’s performance in China, a market where the Cupertino giant has faced significant challenges, including intense competition from Huawei and other local players such as Xiaomi.
Huawei, which made a comeback at the end of 2023 after its smartphone business was crippled by U.S. sanctions, has eaten away at Apple’s share.
Apple’s return to growth in China will be a welcome sign for investors. The U.S. tech giant “strategically adjusted its pricing” for the iPhone 16 series in China, which helped it grow, Canalys said. Chinese e-commerce firms discounted Apple’s iPhone 16 models during the quarter. And Apple itself also increased trade-in prices for some iPhone models.
Meanwhile, competition in China has intensified. Huawei has aggressively launched various smartphones in the past year and has started to roll out HarmonyOS 5, its self-developed operating system, across various devices. It is a rival to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
“This move is expected to accelerate the expansion of its independent ecosystem’s user base, while also placing greater demands on system compatibility and user experience,” Lucas Zhong, analyst at Canalys, said in a press release.