VinFast shares skyrocket, billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong is the 27th richest person in the world

VinFast skyrocketed

In the trading session on August 22 (US time), VinFast shares suddenly skyrocketed again and reached close to the peak set in the debut trading session on August 15, marking the second consecutive increase. Although the trading volume increased quite strongly, it was still at a low level.

Closing the session on August 22 (early morning of August 23, Vietnam time), VinFast shares (VFS) nearly doubled compared to the previous session to 36.72 USD/share. During the session, VFS shares broke the 40 USD threshold.

The sharp increase in VFS's price helped billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong's assets increase by 20.3 billion USD to 43.7 billion USD. With this asset, billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong ranked 27th on Forbes' list of the richest people on the planet.

Chairman of Vingroup Corporation (VIC) - the parent company of VinFast car company - has regained the position of the richest person in Southeast Asia, a position that Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong achieved during VinFast's debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange on August 15 and in the following two sessions.

VinFast shares rose sharply again on the Nasdaq on August 22.

In the Nasdaq listing session on August 15, VinFast shares closed at over $37/share, equivalent to a Vietnamese car company with a capitalization of $85 billion. Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong was then estimated by Forbes and Bloomberg to have assets of about $44.5 billion, ranking in the top 30 richest people.

With 43.7 billion USD as of August 22 and the 27th richest position in the world , surpassing Hong Kong's richest businessman Li Ka-shing, who is currently ranked 33rd on Forbes' billionaire rankings.

Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong also ranked above billionaire Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, Ms. MacKenzie Scott (ranked 36th).

With the rebound of VinFast shares, Mr. Vuong's assets surpassed the three richest people in Indonesia, including the two Indonesian brothers Budi Hartono and Michael Hartono, who own 25-26 billion USD and became the richest people in Southeast Asia.

There are currently 11 people in Southeast Asia with assets of $10 billion or more. The richest people in Thailand and Singapore each own about $14 billion, while the richest person in Malaysia has $11 billion.

In Asia, Mr. Vuong ranked 5th after 2 Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani (92 billion USD), Gautam Adani (53 billion USD) and the 2 richest people in China, Chung Thiem Thiem (62 billion USD), owner of beverage group Nongfu Srping and Truong Nhat Minh - founder of Tiktok (45 billion USD).

Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong is also richer than the richest person in Korea, Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee (more than 8 billion USD), the richest person in Japan, Uniqlo owner Tadashi Yanai (35 billion USD) and other famous Chinese businessmen such as Ma Hoa Dang - Tencent (35 billion) or Ma Van (Jack Ma) - Alibaba (24 billion USD).

VinFast's capitalization is second in the world among EV companies.

Good news, improved liquidity

VinFast shares increased sharply in the first trading session on August 15, surprising not only domestic and international investors, but also insiders who found it difficult to imagine such a result.

The three subsequent deep declines (at times down to $13, compared to $37 in the initial public offering) made many people think that VFS would have the same scenario as many other electric vehicle companies, especially stocks listed through SPACs - a form of back door listing, or reverse merger.

However, the two recent strong increases and return to near the old peak have really surprised many people.

In the trading session on August 22, VinFast's liquidity on the Nasdaq floor skyrocketed to more than 19 million units, compared to the usual level of about 2 million units/previous session and 6.7 million units in the debut session. However, VinFast's liquidity on the Nasdaq floor is still very low, compared to the total of more than 2.3 billion VFS shares listed.

Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong is the 27th richest person in the world.

The news that Gotion (a company cooperating with Vingroup to produce lithium batteries in Vietnam) signed an agreement to buy 15 million VinFast (VFS) shares at a price of 10 USD/share could be positive news for VFS shares.

Still, VinFast is seen as facing many challenges in a new and competitive electric vehicle market. Many auto giants such as Ford, GM, BMW and VW have entered the field, along with startups such as Nikola, Lucid and NIO. Established automakers are quietly preparing for future launches and merging the biggest values of the country and the region for a big fight.

Right after the IPO on 158, VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy also acknowledged the challenges ahead and whether or not VinFast can “do it” depends on it. Ms. Thuy also said that everything is not as rosy as the IPO session.

However, VinFast's global CEO believes that VinFast has a lot of potential and the world electric vehicle market is very large.

Regarding the skyrocketing stock price on the first day of listing, according to VinFast CEO, the result shows that the market may have recognized the value of VinFast after the company first came out and talked about its potential and what it has done in the past 6 years. In addition, the amount of free shares traded is relatively low. "Demand is high, so the stock price is pushed up," she said.

The number of shares held by a group of companies related to Vingroup and Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong accounts for more than 99% of the total number of shares issued, according to the prospectus. The number of shares freely traded after VinFast's listing is only about 4.5 million shares out of a total of more than 2.3 billion shares.

Ms. Le Thi Thu Thuy assessed that the demand for electric vehicles in the world is currently high and will be even higher in the future. Many governments are setting many taxes and fees for high emissions. Since COP26, many people have become aware of environmental protection. From there, the demand for electric vehicles is increasing.

Source vietnamnet

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