[FoxBusiness] The chairman of Vietnam’s Vingroup conglomerate said on Saturday that the company’s auto unit, VinFast, would seek financing from the U.S. government to support its expansion with a planned plant in North Carolina.
"It is also one of our financing options, but we need to prove to them that we are qualified," Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong told a group including news hounds.
VinFast said this week that its Singapore-based holding company had filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with U.S. securities regulators, as the company readies a $4-billion investment to build a factory in the United States.
VinFast, which began operations in 2019, is betting big on the U.S. market, where it hopes to compete with legacy automakers and startups with two all-electric SUVs and a battery leasing model that will reduce the purchase price.
Vuong said VinFast was committed to an IPO that would help establish the electric vehicle maker as a global brand, but added: "if the conditions are not right we can wait."
"We ourselves are determined to push and committed to this IPO, but the highest target for the IPO is not financing but to set up VinFast in the global market," he told the group