EV maker VinFast plans US IPO as soon as January: sources

VINFAST, an electric vehicle (EV) maker backed by Vietnam’s richest man, is weighing whether to hold its planned initial public offering (IPO) in the US as soon as January 2023, according to people familiar with the matter.

The unit of conglomerate Vingroup JSC could raise at least US$1 billion but it could also be more depending on interest, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

VinFast has held talks with prospective investors and will consider factors including market conditions in determining the IPO timing, the people said. It filed confidentially for the US IPO in April.

Deliberations are ongoing and details of the IPO including the timeline could still change, the people said. A representative for VinFast declined to comment.

VinFast is looking to conduct the US IPO “sometime in 2023”, its chief financial officer David Mansfield said in September. The carmaker has secured about US$1.2 billion in incentives for its planned EV factory in North Carolina, where it intends to start production in 2024. It agreed last month to expand its collaboration with Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology to include chassis products.

The company said in July that it had signed agreements with banks to raise at least US$4 billion to help its US expansion. VinFast has said it has about 73,000 global reservations for its EVs. Pham Nhat Vuong, Vingroup’s chairman, has a net worth of about US$4.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. BLOOMBERG

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