Chinese language tea chain Chagee recordsdata for U.S. preliminary public providing

Chinese language tea chain Chagee filed for a U.S. preliminary public providing on Tuesday, in search of to commerce on the Nasdaq utilizing the ticker “CHA.”

The IPO submitting comes as the corporate prepares to open its first U.S. retailer within the Westfield Century Metropolis mall in Los Angeles this spring.

Since its founding in 2017, the corporate has grown to greater than 6,400 teahouses throughout China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as of Dec. 31, in response to a regulatory submitting. Roughly 97% of its places are in China.

Chagee stated it generated internet revenue of $344.5 million from income of $1.7 billion in 2024.

Founder and CEO Junjie Zhang created the chain to modernize tea ingesting after being impressed by the success of worldwide espresso firms, in response to a regulatory submitting. China is Starbucks’ second-largest market.

Wanting forward, Chagee desires to “serve tea lovers in 100 international locations, generate 300,000 employment alternatives worldwide, and ship 15 billion cups of freshly brewed tea yearly,” in response to the corporate’s web site.

If Chagee goes public on the Nasdaq, it is going to be a part of the dwindling variety of Chinese language firms in search of a U.S. itemizing. From January 2023 to January 2024, the variety of Chinese language firms listed on the three largest U.S. exchanges fell 5%, in response to the U.S.-China Financial and Safety Overview Fee.

As relations between the U.S. and Beijing have grown frostier, political scrutiny has dashed some Chinese language firms’ hopes of a U.S. IPO. Shein is now planning a London IPO for later this 12 months after lawmakers pushed again on its plans to go public on a U.S. trade.

U.S. buyers may additionally be cautious to put money into one other Chinese language beverage chain after the instance set by Luckin Espresso.

Luckin was based in 2017 and grew rapidly. By 2019, it had outnumbered the variety of Starbucks places in China and gone public on the Nasdaq.

However in 2020, Luckin disclosed that it had inflated its gross sales, leading to its delisting from the Nasdaq. The corporate filed for Chapter 15 chapter. Luckin emerged from chapter by 2022, minus the executives that have been chargeable for the fraud.

Since then, it has overtaken Starbucks as China’s largest espresso retailer by gross sales.