Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Black Spade Acquisition (NYSEMKT:BSAQ) said it won shareholder approval to acquire Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast. VinFast will begin trading on the Nasdaq next week. It will trade under the VFS ticker.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared VinFast’s F-4 registration statement valid on July 28. VinFast claims an enterprise value of $27 billion.
BSAQ stock jumped on the news, nearly doubling in price to about $20 after the deal was announced yesterday. Tempers cooled quite a bit overnight, with shares selling for $14.91 this morning. This gives BSAQ a market cap of $106 million.
Inside VinFast
VinFast, now based in Singapore, makes the VF 8 an SUV. It’s similar to the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model Y and claims a range of 264 miles per charge. VinFast is also taking reservations for a larger car, the VF 9, and has two more on the drawing boards. The company broke ground in 2022 for a factory near Raleigh, North Carolina.
VinFast was founded in 2017 in Haiphong. It is part of VinGroup, Vietnam’s leading conglomerate. Cars were designed with help from Italy’s Pininfarina design group, which is majority owned by Indian car company Mahindra. BMW (OTCMKTS:BMWYY) of Germany and Magna Steyr (NYSE:MGA), an Austrian contract manufacturer that is producing the Fisker (NYSE:FSR) Ocean, are also involved.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) helped give VinFast its start, transferring a closed factory in Vietnam to VinFast in 2018. That factory had assembled Chevrolets with parts from South Korea. VinFast began testing its electric vehicles in Michigan last year.
Black Spade is based in Hong Kong and controlled by Lawrence Ho, an investment banker and son of Macau casino owner Stanley Ho. Lawrence Ho was educated in Canada and also runs a casino company called Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO), operating in Asia and Europe.
BSAQ Stock: What Happens Next?
Unlike many EV start-ups that have launched on American exchanges, VinFast seems well-capitalized, with several deep-pocketed partners. Whether it can generate scale and profit are questions that will be answered over time.
As of this writing, Dana Blankenhorn did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
