On the day of Friday, Vietnamese electric automaker VinFast, announced its intention to undertake a listing in the United States, by means of a merger with the Black Spade Acquisition Co., which is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). According to a joint statement released by VinFast and Black Spade, the resultant conglomerate will have an enterprise value that is valued at approximately $27 billion, in addition to an equity value of approximately $23 billion, which is, of course, under the assumption that there are no BSAQ shareholders who elect to have their Black Spade shares redeemed for cash, which is permitted by law.
The joint statement released by the two companies also indicated that the transaction is projected to be concluded in the second half of the year 2023. In addition, the statement suggested that the extant shareholders of VinFast will retain an ownership stake of approximately 99% of the shares of the merged company. This latest move comes as VinFast started to sell electric vehicles in California earlier this year, after filing for an initial public offering in December of last year with the aim of getting listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VFS”.
The Black Spade Acquisition Co., which is headquartered in Hong Kong, is a SPAC that began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in mid-July of last year. According to the company’s website, the SPAC had made plans to merge with a company that ideally operates in the entertainment sector, within a timeframe of two years.
