No Vinhomes funding for VinFast: CEO

Vinhomes CEO Nguyen Thu Hang says the residential property development arm of Vietnam’s private conglomerate Vingroup has not provided financing for other companies in the group’s ecosystem, including EV-maker VinFast.

She said Wednesday that all financial transactions (mostly short-term ones with 12 months the longest period) with Vingroup linked businesses were aimed at maximizing available cash with Vinhomes.

Hang was responding to shareholder queries at the firm’s AGM held in Hanoi on Wednesday.

“VinFast can mobilize capital by itself and has its own financing sources,” she said.

VinFast, listed on the Nasdaq as VFS since last August, said it delivered a total of 9,689 vehicles in Q1, representing a 444% year-on-year increase. This helped drive the EV maker’s Q1 revenue up 269.7%, the firm said in a statement.

VinFast is aggressively expanding its operations in several continents, including North America, Asia, and Europe. Besides its first plant in Hai Phong city, northern Vietnam, the automaker is building a plant in North Carolina, the U.S., and started building another one costing $500 million in Tamil Nadu, India in February. It also plans to invest up to $1.2 billion in Indonesia.

In a move to support the EV-maker, Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong and some shareholders have pledged to grant $1 billion and donated battery maker VinES to VinFast.

In December, VinFast signed a letter of interest with the U.S. International Development Financial Corporation (DFC) to make a formal application for a $500 million loan to establish a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Vietnam.