Vietnamese car maker Vinfast is now valued at more than Ford after its stock price soared on its first day of trading.
Floated on the Nasdaq in New York, the electric car firm, which has already launched its products in Europe and the US with a line-up of four models, closed the day at $37 (£29) a share.
This leaves it valued at $85 billion (£66.6bn), higher than Ford's $48bn (£37.6bn) and even General Motors, at $46bn (£36bn).
This value could be considered slightly misleading, given that just 1% of Vinfast’s shares were put out to tender. The remaining 99% are owned by the firm’s founder, chairman and Vietnam's richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong.
Despite just 1% of shares being available, the listing added $39bn to Nhat Vuong’s wealth.
What adds to the intrigue of this huge investment is that Vinfast has yet to turn a profit, despite selling 11,300 EVs in the first half of this year.
Nevertheless, this move can also be seen as investors pushing for a part of the booming electric car market, especially in low-cost, high-volume Asian car makers following the surge in cars landing in Europe from the East – which has so far been dominated by Chinese firms such as BYD Auto, Great Wall Motors (GWM) and SAIC.
This point is backed by Bill Russo, founder and CEO of Shanghai-based Automobility, who told the BBC that US investors are now taking note. "Investors are continuing to believe that the future is electric and that a low-cost east Asian country will emerge as a competitor in the US.”
But, he added, it won’t be China that will take on Tesla – the country’s leading EV seller, which sold more than 889,000 cars worldwide in the first half of 2023 – for a piece of the US market, but Vietnam “given geopolitics”.
"Tesla will continue to be the clear leader in EVs but there will be many winners," Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities told the BBC. "VinFast has built a strong foundation for EV success."
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