Electric vehicle maker Winfast, founded by Vietnam’s richest man, blank-check company Blake Spade Acquisition Co. With the merger going public in what would be the largest US listing ever by a company from a Southeast Asian country. The deal will give WinFast an equity value of about $23 billion, parent company WinGroup JSC said in a statement on Friday. Including debt, the EV maker would be valued at about $27 billion. Winfast shareholders will own approximately 99% of the combined entity after the transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. Black Spade shares jumped as much as 12% in pre-market trading. Winfast will join Asian companies seeking to list in the US through mergers with special purpose acquisition firms, even as similar transactions have slowed amid tighter regulatory oversight and lukewarm market sentiment. Smart-car tech startup Ecarx Holdings Inc. It went public in the US in December after completing its merger with a blank-check company, while Singaporean TV licensing firm Allrites Holdings Pte struck a merger deal with blank-check firm Aura FAT Projects Acquisition Corp this week. Winfast will also look to break the mold of struggling EV manufacturers after the SPAC merger. Companies that have nearly wiped out shareholders by joining blank-check firms in the past few years include Nicola Corp., Lordstown Motors Corp. and Cano Inc. One EV promising — Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. — filed for bankruptcy about a year ago. . The SPAC merger, if successful, would cap WinFast’s years-long efforts to become a publicly traded company. Bloomberg News first reported in early 2021 that Vingroup was considering a $2 billion US initial public offering for the EV unit. The company had applied for share sale in April 2022 confidentially. The move comes as Winfast accelerates its efforts to expand into markets outside the country. The EV maker, which plans to build a factory in North Carolina, shipped its second batch of electric cars to North America in April with plans to begin delivering to customers in the US this month. It also plans to ship its first vehicles to Europe in July. “The partnership with Black Spade and the listing of Winfast in the US represents the perfect capital raising route for our future global ambitions and is also an important achievement for Wingroup,” Winfast Chief Executive Officer Le Thi Thu Thu said in the statement.
Global expansion
Vinggroup founder Pham Nhat Vuong, 54, is the country’s richest person, with a net worth of $3.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He started his business while studying in Moscow and said he left Russia with $40,000 in debt. He started a dry foods company in Ukraine in the early 90s that sold instant noodles and mashed potatoes and sold it to Nestlé SA in 2010 for an undisclosed sum. Soon after launching Winfast in 2017, Vuong spoke openly about his ambition to sell cars. in the US and committed as much as $2 billion to the carmaker individually. The billionaire said last month that he would give another $1 billion to the EV maker over the next year. Vingroup will chip in $500 million and provide a $1 billion loan over five years. VinFast officially launched three car models and three e-scooters in Vietnam in 2019, according to its website. In 2021, it launched the first batch of EVs and started pre-orders for them globally last year. Read more: Vietnam’s richest man solidifies risky $8 billion bet on EVs Black Spade acquisition company Raised $169 million in US IPO in 2021. The Hong Kong-based blank check firm said it aims to identify a relevant business combination target. In the entertainment industry, its website shows, focusing on enabling technology, lifestyle brands, products or services, and entertainment media. Its sponsor Black Spade Capital Limited is the private investment arm of Lawrence Ho, chairman and chief executive officer of casino operator Melco International Development Limited.
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