Heard on the Street: VinFast’s SPAC Backers Are Backing Out
Even by the standards of electric-vehicle startups, the $40 billion market value of Vietnamese electric-vehicle startup VinFast is wild. The good news for investors is that the stock is about to get easier to bet against.
The company reported results on Thursday. More interesting than the second-quarter numbers, though, was an update on the capital structure. The company last week filed documentation with the Securities and Exchange Commission to release lockup restrictions on 3.1% of its shares, worth about $1.25 billion at the current price. The shares were down 7% in morning trading.
The sponsors of the special-purpose acquisition company that took VinFast public will be able to sell at what might be a very healthy profit. So too will entities belonging to billionaire chairman Pham Nhat Vuong, Vietnam’s richest man, but he has pledged to plow any proceeds back into the company, which burned through $890 million of cash in the first six months of 2023.
