It's a good week to be (Vin)Fast! This Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker made its debut on NASDAQ earlier this week, valued at $23B.

 Oh, and their stock opened at $22!

• Seeing double? That's 2x of what the agreed value ($10 per stock) was approved by VinFast’s SPAC partner Black Spade Acquisition.
• Scoop: VinFast is 99% owned by Vietnam’s wealthiest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, who’s now $39B richer after the listing. 

According to Refinitiv data, about $185M worth of the company’s shares were exchanged. 

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🏍️ Staying ahead

Oh, and their stock even soared to $37.06 per share at one point.

• That’s higher than both Ford’ ($48B) and General Motors’ ($46B) value!

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🔥 Beat the competition

Watch out, Elon Musk! VinFast is gearing up to compete with US EV maker, Tesla.

They're opening up a $4B construction planet in North Carolina, and will be switching up their sales approach to capture a greater share of the market. 

• So far, the Vietnamese startup already deployed 3K vehicles to North America. 
• But, according to S&P Global Mobility, only 137 vehicles have been registered as of June.

Going hybrid? They used to sell directly to consumers, but they’ll be working with partners such as distributors and dealers for their overseas market. 

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🔙 Back it up

VinFast's IPO dreams have been in the works as early as December last year. 

• Earlier this May, they announced that they would list with Black Spade Acquisition through an SPAC. 
• Black Spade will provide business advice to grow the brand and also engage with investors

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💫 Driving to profitability? 

VinFast isn’t profitable yet. For context, their revenue in the first quarter was 49% lower than last year’s. Oh, and in 2022, they reported a $2.1B loss

• Not for long? CFO David Mansfield told Reuters that’ they’ll be profitable in 18 months ‘for sure’. 

To do that though, they first have to face the pressure to actually sell their EVs to keep their stock values high.