A lot of people who are interested in and follow VinFast’s advertisement for the VF8 series that have just been exported to the US can clearly see that this chess game is too bold, too much loss. According to VinFast announced, each VF8 car is offered for sale in the US for $41,000, so a total of 999 units may bring more than $40 million. Meanwhile, the cost of painting and repairing the ship was $30 million, the cost for the transportation was about $10 million, the total would be $40 million. Thus, the money from the sale of this shipment is only enough for Mr. Vuong to pay for painting and chartering. There are costs for car production, rent for sales team, money spent on press to PR products, money to organize a lavish ceremony with high-ranking guests.
The problem of capital loss is like that, but Mr. Vuong still does it. Not only that, he also let his employees shout loudly, slandering false numbers. From November 15, VF employees simultaneously cheered about “the VinFast ship carrying 5,000 electric cars crossing the ocean.” This is misleading that VinFast owns the ship and the goods are on the way to export. But in fact, on November 26, the ship left the port and it was a rented VinFast ship. Although the capacity of the ship is 5,000 ships, it actually only carries 999 ships.
These moves make the online community doubt and make many assumptions.
Facebooker Duong Quoc Chinh said that Vin “PR is wrong” and VinFast’s PR team is unprofessional when reporting such false information. This Facebooker suspected that the grand export ceremony was held to prevent the government from making “aggressive” moves with Mr. Vuong. Because “who has just done the car export ceremony to make a name for the young, but now …” is too embarrassed. Mr. Chinh also doubts the success of VinFast, because according to him, this is a “Chinese car, designed by the West, designed by the West, labeled Singapore, blowing Vietnamese souls.” Therefore, the production cost is high, but the quality is only on par with Chinese cars, so it will not be able to compete in the US market.
Facebooker Nguyen Dang Hai scoffed that, if exported to the US, no one would buy it, they would import it back to Vietnam, and advertise it as American products…
Another dilemma of VinFast is capital. VinFast’s capital is derived from Vinhomes’ real estate, which currently, Vinhomes is facing too many problems, too many risks. From falling stock prices, to Vinhomes’s works being denounced as poor quality, to fraudulent business being protested by customers everywhere. It is not known whether Vinhomes can survive this difficult period or not. If Vinhomes collapses, VinFast will inevitably collapse.
Of course, VinFast also has a contingency plan, which is expected to raise capital from abroad. According to a foreign news agency, VinFast has been planning to IPO in the US since April 2021 and they hope to be listed in 2022. They also expect to value the business at about $60 billion. But the plan had to change, because that valuation “seems uncertain” in the current market context. Now, the US IPO plan has been announced again in January 2023 and is expected to raise a billion USD in this round. However, it is difficult to predict whether VinFast can successfully IPO or not, as the business valuation has not been announced so far.
Thus, even if VinFast wishes to be able to mobilize foreign capital to rescue VinGroup, it is difficult to do so quickly in the current context. This slowness may have made Mr. Vuong so impatient that he had to spend huge losses to polish his image?
Many people think that Vin has lost his capital and is out of breath. In his dying breath, Mr. Vuong had to do everything he could to save the situation and avoid a tragic ending like Van Thinh Phat or Tan Hoang Minh. After the scams of corporate bonds and the collapse of the stock market, it is no longer easy to “trap clients” in Vietnam. Is Mr. Vuong shifting the market to the US to continue “trap clients” in the US?
Accepting the loss of a shipment and the expense of a lavish ceremony, is it possible that Mr. Vuong is using an arrow to shoot 3-4 swallows. However, sane people see that his strategy may work in the short term but will bring bitter fruit in the long term.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
