Luckin Coffee Denies Plan for Hong Kong IPO

The South China Morning Post reported on Monday that beverage chain Luckin Coffee is considering carrying out a public listing in Hong Kong as its business gets back on track. However, Luckin Coffee issued a statement on Monday night officially denying such reports.

The statement reads: “Luckin Coffee’s management is focused on delivering outstanding products and services to our customers by executing on our business strategies. We remain committed to the US capital markets and strive to enhance long-term value for our shareholders. The Company will continue to monitor capital markets developments and evaluate all avenues to deliver value to its stakeholders, but is not currently pursuing a Hong Kong listing.”

Luckin Coffee opened its first store in China in October of 2017 and was listed on the Nasdaq in May of 2019. In April 2020, the company dropped a bombshell by admitting fabricated transactions, followed by two delisting notices from the Nasdaq. At the end of June, 2020, Luckin Coffee confirmed its delisting and suspended trading of its shares on the Nasdaq.

In March of this year, Luckin Coffee announced the completion of overseas temporary liquidation procedures. On April 11, Luckin Coffee announced that it had successfully completed the restructuring of financial debt and was no longer subject to bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings in any jurisdiction. Guo Jinyi, Chairman and CEO of Luckin Coffee, said that with the support of its creditors, Luckin Coffee had ended bankruptcy procedures as a debtor, adding: “today marks a new beginning for Luckin Coffee.”

In terms of performance, Luckin Coffee’s net income in fiscal year 2021 reached 7.965 billion yuan ($1.2499 billion), a year-on-year increase of 97.5%. GAAP operating losses in fiscal year 2021 were 539.1 million yuan ($84.6 million).

SEE ALSO: Luckin Coffee Reports $1.25B Revenue in 2021

In the past year, Luckin Coffee has opened 1,221 new stores. By the end of 2021, its number of stores reached 6,024. Among them, there are 1,627 partnership stores, nearly doubling from year ago, accounting for nearly 30%. According to its financial report, the revenue of partnership stores in 2021 was 1.306 billion yuan ($205.0 million), a year-on-year increase of 312.5%.