VinFast has experienced a week of dramatic share price rises, causing a ‘storm’ in the international market and in Vietnam. 

In the last five trading session, August 21-25, 2023, VinFast prices soared by 4.5 times and climbed to the new peak on Nasdaq $68.77 per share, while its capitalization value surged by $120 billion to nearly $160 billion.

This has turned VinFast into the world’s second largest electric automobile manufacturer in the world, just after Tesla owned by billionaire Elon Musk which had capitalization value of $957 billion as of August 25. VinFast has also become the third largest automobile manufacturer in the world, after Toyota ($222 billion).

After a very short time, Vietnam’s young automobile maker, established in 2017, has outstripped the biggest players in the the automobile industry, including General Motors, Ford, Honda, Ferrari and Volkswagen, even surpassed the two big manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and the German Porsche as well.

VinFast’s capitalization is even twice as much as the Chinese BYD, the electric vehicle which is threatening to oust Tesla from the No1 position and has been selling very well.

In the first half of 2023, BYD delivered 1.26 million cars. In 2022, the Chinese manufacturer sold 1.86 million products, three times higher than in 2021 and is attacking the ASEAN market.

The strong rise of VinFast share prices, which has surpassed American automobile makers and German companies from which VinFast has bought some technologies, and Chinese company BYD has put VinFast at the center of the world’s attention. 

International media describes VinFast as a young automobile maker which still doesn’t obtain high number of orders and doesn’t have outstanding technologies, but cherishes a very ambitious business plan - conquer the US market, Europe, the Middle East and ASEAN.

VinFast is backed by the largest private corporation in Vietnam – Vingroup, where billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong is the president.

The high expectations that investors put on the future of the world’s electric vehicle industry and the amount of VinFast free float shares which is at a very low level (4.5 million units vs 2.3 billion listed VinFast shares) are also factors supporting the strong rise in the US stock market.

In fact, Vietnam is a country with advantages in agriculture and tourism, rather than hi-tech industrial production. This is also a factor that attracted the international media when VinFast made a splendid debut in the US’s No 1 technology stock market. 

With $160 billion, VinFast is on the Forbes’ list of the global 100 companies with largest capitalization value, standing above a lot of big names such as Walt Disney, Nike and Boeing, and even some famous banks such as the British hundreds-of-years-old HSBC.

The assets of billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, the owner of VinFast, increased by tens of billions of dollars just overnight, placing him on the 23rd position among ultra-wealthy businesspeople in the world, the third in Asia and the No 1 in Southeast Asia. 

The beginning of a new legend?

The appearance of VinFast shares on Nasdaq and the sharp share price increases in recent days has stirred controversy, and Vuong’s rankings in the lists of the richest billionaires have also caught the special attention of the public.

Forbes and Bloomberg, the two institutions ranking wealthy businesspeople in the world, are puzzled by Vuong’s positions changing regularly, proportional with the VinFast share price increases.

Arguments continue about the fact that Vuong has surpassed a series of leading businesses in the world. The number of VInFast’s free float shares remains low.

Many people are doubtful about the breakthrough made by VinFast share prices, while many others have confidence in the risk-favorite appetite of the US stock market, like they once bet on Elon Musk’s Tesla shares.

Tesla share prices have been fluctuating all the time over the last decade and Tesla many times faced the risk of going bankrupt before it became the No 1 electric automobile manufacturer.

Manh Ha