HONG KONG/BEIJING : Two years after it was forced to withdraw from the Nasdaq for an accounting fraud, China's Luckin Coffee believes it has emerged from its"darkest moment", and said it remains committed to U.S. capital markets as it expands its stores and sales.
Luckin delisted from Nasdaq following the financial scandal, shocking Wall Street investors. After changes in ownership and top management, as well as paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, the company once again is flexing its muscles. Centurium, a key early investor of the coffee chain, in January became the firm's controlling shareholder after leading a consortium to acquire shares that used to be owned by two of Luckin's founders for more than $400 million.
Luckin plans to continue to open new stores, said Luckin's chief executive Guo Jinyi, even as China's stringent COVID-19 curbs have forced many catering chains to be more cautious about expansion in the near-term. Ever after the Nasdaq delisting, Luckin remains tradable via pink sheet, off-exchange trading platform mainly involving penny-stock companies that do not meet the main exchanges' listing standards.