HANOI, May 12 Reuters Vietnamese electric automaker VinFast said on Friday it will list in the U.S. via a merger with special purpose acquisition company SPAC Black Spade Acquisition Co.

After the merger, the new entity will have an enterprise value of approximately 27 billion and an equity value of 23 billion, assuming no BSAQ shareholders elect to have their Black Spade shares redeemed for cash as permitted, VinFast and Black Spade said in a joint statement.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023, it said, adding existing shareholders of VinFast will hold approximately 99 shares of the combined company.

VinFast, which began to sell EVs in California this year, filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. to list on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol VFS in December last year.

Black Spade Acquisition is an Hong Kongbased SPAC which listed on the NYSE in midJuly 2021 with a plan to merge, within two years, with a company ideally in the entertainment business, according to its website.

Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Toby Chopra

Source Reuters