HAIPHONG (Reuters) – Vietnamese automaker VinFast said on Thursday that a Singapore-based holding company that owns a stake in it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with U.S. securities regulators.
VinFast, which is a unit of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate Vingroup JSC, said it had not determined the size and price range for the IPO.
“There are options to look at. We are still considering a lot of options,” VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy told reporters on the sideline of an event to showcase the company’s new VF8 battery-powered SUV.
The company said last week that it signed a preliminary deal to initially invest $2 billion to build a factory in North Carolina to make electric buses, sport utility vehicles and batteries for electric vehicles.
VinFast is betting big on the U.S. market, where it hopes to compete with legacy automakers and startups with electric SUVs and a battery leasing model.
She said the IPO is planned for the second half of this year and is one option to fund the planned North Carolina plant and U.S. expansion.
The company had flagged in April last year that it was eyeing a $60 billion valuation with expectation to raise at least $3 billion.
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill)
