(Bloomberg) — After an astronomical rally on its first trading day, VinFast Auto Ltd. Now to the ground – erasing a large chunk of its billionaire founder’s fortune.
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The Vietnamese electric car maker has fallen sharply over the last two trading days in New York, wiping out more than half of the 255% gain it made on Tuesday when it listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
At $46.4 billion, VinFast’s market capitalization is still slightly above General Motors.
Chairman and founder Pham Nhat Vuong, who controls all but a handful of the company’s shares, has seen his net worth drop nearly 40% to $26.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Large fluctuations in stock prices were expected. Vuong controls 99% of VinFast shares, mostly through his business conglomerate, Vingroup JSC. This leaves a small portion of the trading for other investors, which means that even relatively small transactions can have a significant impact on the price.
However, Vuong doesn’t hurt. Since Bloomberg didn’t account for his stake in VinFast until the company this week completed its merger with the blank-check company, he remains significantly richer than he was before the listing.
On paper, he earned close to $40 billion on his first trading day – one of the biggest leaps in wealth the index has ever recorded.
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