EV maker VinFast has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the U.S. as the Vietnamese electric vehicle maker starts building a factory in North Carolina.
The unit of conglomerate Vingroup JSC has lodged its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a statement on its website Thursday. The company said it hasn’t decided on the size of the offering.
The biggest carmaker in Vietnam has been working with advisers on the U.S. listing in the second half of this year, it said in a statement in December. The share sale could raise about $2 billion, Bloomberg News has reported.
At $2 billion, VinFast’s IPO would be the biggest ever by a Vietnamese company after Vinhomes JSC’s $1.4 billion first-time share sale in 2018, according to Bloomberg data. If successful, the carmaker would also become one of the few Vietnamese companies to list in the U.S.
A listing comes as VinFast plans to open an EV factory in North Carolina, which could become operational in 2024. The plant is the first phase of a planned complex in the U.S. that would have a total investment of as much as $6 billion.
U.S. President Joe Biden tweeted a White House statement about VinFast’s North Carolina plans, which it called a $4 billion investment that would create more than 7,000 jobs.
VinFast aims to start delivering cars in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands late this year. Prices for its VF8 and VF9 electric SUVs will range from $41,000 to $61,000. VinFast began domestic deliveries of its first electric cars in December.
Separately, VinFast is exploring a funding round to raise $500 million to $1 billion ahead of its U.S. IPO.
