© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Vietnam’s VinFast electric vehicle (EV) maker is pictured in a sales location at a shopping mall in Santa Monica, California, U.S., May 23, 2022. Picture taken May 23, 2022. REUTERS/David Swanson/File Photo
By Abhirup Roy
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast (NASDAQ:) aims to increase its free float – or shares available to the public for trading – to 10-20% of shares by the end of this year, from roughly 2% currently, the company’s chairperson said on Tuesday.
“This year we plan as the markets recover and as we show more achievements of progress, we will do follow-on transactions … increasing the free float, bringing in many more investors, including long-only investors,” Le Thi Thu Thuy, the former CEO and current VinFast chairperson, told Reuters on the sidelines of the CES trade show in Las Vegas. The free float “hopefully would be 10-20% at least,” she said.
A larger free float could lessen the intense volatility in the company’s stock. Shares were down about 1.9% at $6.66 on Tuesday afternoon. They had surged over 255% in their Nasdaq debut in August, notching a market value of roughly $85 billion, almost as much as Ford Motor (NYSE:) and General Motors (NYSE:) combined, before plunging.
VinFast sold over 21,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of last year.
The company, which has yet to make a profit, has entered the EV market as car prices are under pressure, led by cuts at market leader Tesla (NASDAQ:) and a range of Chinese companies including BYD (SZ:).
The company closed the third quarter, which ended on Sept. 30, with a net loss of $623 million.
VinFast last week announced a plan to set up manufacturing and battery facilities in India. It also aims to expand in more markets in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, including Indonesia.
VinFast last week shuffled executives, with Thuy and company founder and financial backer Pham Nhat Vuong swapping jobs. Chairman Vuong became CEO and CEO Thuy became chair.
Thuy said the move allowed her to concentrate on funds for growth. “This year I need to focus on fundraising for VinFast,” Thuy told Reuters on Tuesday. “We will do a lot of fundraising to support the growth.”
