Vietnam’s electric-vehicle maker VinFast Auto Ltd plans to start trading on the Nasdaq next week after a NYSE American-listed special-purpose acquisition company approved their merger.Black Spade Acquisition Co shareholders on Thursday signed off on the combination with the manufacturer.VinFast expects to debut on the Nasdaq on or around August 15 under the symbol VFS. The deal values the company at about $23bn, a statement last month showed.Shares of the SPAC spiked as much as 76% in New York to trade as high as $18.80. The jump came as more than 700,000 shares changed hands, triggering at least one volatility-related halt.The planned Nasdaq listing, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report, caps VinFast’s years-long efforts to become a publicly traded company. The manufacturer is selling made-in-Vietnam electric cars and is currently building a factory in the US.VinFast still has a long way to go though. The company has been held back by operational problems, hobbling its ambition to gain market share in the competitive EV space. In May, VinFast recalled all the electric sport utility vehicles shipped to the US over a software malfunction, and its losses have been widening due to the cost of its expansion.It’s somewhat unusual for VinFast to list on a different exchange than the one its blank-check company is traded on. In a typical SPAC merger, the blank-check company’s backers receive new stock in the combined firm in exchange for their old SPAC shares, which are cancelled and delisted. The new shares begin trading immediately after the closing of the deal, nearly always on the exchange where the SPAC was approved. Although Black Spade is NYSE American-listed, VinFast’s prospectus ahead of the vote said the company intended to apply to list on either the NYSE, NYSE American or the Nasdaq.An equity valuation of $23bn, or $27bn including debt, would mean VinFast will trade at a premium to most peers including Rivian Automotive Inc. and Nikola Corp, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Ken Foong and Siti Nur Fairuz Khalil.
August 11, 2023 | 11:14 PM