EV maker VinFast’s wild rally makes it as big as Ford and GM combined

VINFAST Auto shares skyrocketed 109 per cent to add US$44 billion in market value to the Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker on Tuesday (Aug 22), extending a raucous week since it went public.

The stock’s now 251 per cent surge from an Aug 15 debut has vaulted its market capitalisation back above US$84 billion, making its paper value much larger than General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor. Tuesday’s rally came as more than 19 million shares changed hands, with investors flipping the stock that has a small portion of shares available for trading.

VinFast continues to be the top-performing company that went public via a special-purpose acquisition company (Spac) merger this year, trading above US$35 a piece after its tie-up with Black Spade Acquisition. Just 1.3 million shares are currently available for trading, meaning investors should brace for volatility as lower-float stocks are prone to see big swings.

The jump in the share price gave a US$20.1 billion boost to the wealth of the company’s chairman and founder, Pham Nhat Vuong. The wild moves in the shares, which Vuong controls 99 per cent of, sent the fortune of Vietnam’s richest man careening from US$21.2 billion on Friday to US$43.4 billion today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Additionally, many companies that merged with blank check firms have had rallies that fizzle out in the days and weeks after a deal closes, when the social media buzz subsides. De-Spacs that have made their debut this year have seen a median slump of about 45 per cent, with 15 of them wiping out more than 80 per cent of their value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. BLOOMBERG