Entering China
Overlord Tea Lady
Another tea brand sprints to the market.
Recently, the International Cooperation Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a notice on the filing of Chagee Holdings Limited (Cha Ji Holdings Co., Ltd.) for the overseas issuance and listing, showing that the company intends to issue no more than 64,731,929 ordinary shares and be listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange or the New York Stock Exchange through the overseas issuance and listing materials submitted by Beijing Cha Ji Catering Management Co., Ltd., a domestic operating entity.
The notice pointed out that Chaji Holdings has not completed the overseas issuance and listing within 12 months from the date of issuance of this filing notice, and if it intends to continue to advance, it shall update the filing materials.
Regarding the proposed listing in the United States, Bawang Chaji said that the information of the Securities Regulatory Commission shall prevail.
In June 2017, Bawang Chaji was founded in Yunnan and opened its first store in November. Or in preparation for the listing, Bawang Chaji frantically expanded its stores last year, and the number of stores doubled in one year. According to the reporter’s understanding, as of the end of December 2024, the number of Bawang Chaji stores worldwide has exceeded 6,000, including more than 150 overseas stores. The cumulative sales of the star product “Boya Juexian” will exceed 600 million cups in 2024. And by the end of 2023, the number of Bawang Chaji stores worldwide has just exceeded 3,000.
At present, with the increasingly fierce competition in the domestic tea market, many tea brands are accelerating the layout of the international market.
In 2018, when there were less than 100 domestic stores, Bawang Chaji took globalization as one of its core strategies and established an overseas business department. In August 2019, it opened its first overseas store in Malaysia; In August 2024, we will open 3 new stores in Singapore. By the end of 2024, it has stores in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, and in the brand vision introduction on the official website, Bawang Chaji pointed out that it plans to serve 100 countries in the future and provide tea lovers with 15 billion cups of modern oriental tea every year.
Zhang Junjie, the founder of Bawang Chaji, revealed in a public speech in 2024 that the total sales of Bawang Chaji in 2023 will reach 10.8 billion yuan, and the sales in the first quarter of 2024 will reach 5.8 billion yuan. In 2024, the goal is to surpass Starbucks China in overall sales in China.
In terms of the capital market, Bawang Chaji has previously completed two rounds of financing in succession. In January 2021, Bawang Chaji received a round A investment of 160 million yuan jointly led by XVC and Fosun Group, and in May, it received a round B round of investment led by Cong Biqiushi and followed by XVC with an investment of 160 million yuan.
It is worth noting that the competition in the tea market has become more and more fierce in recent years. Mixue Group (2097. HK), Gu Ming (1364. HK), Tea Baidao (2555.HK) HK), Nayuki’s Tea (2150. HK) four tea companies have successively achieved listing in Hong Kong. Among them, the tea beverage company Mixue Bingcheng, known as the “king of cost performance”, is particularly favored by capital, and its share price rose by more than 40% on the first day of listing on March 3 this year, with a market value of more than 100 billion Hong Kong dollars, and it has also become the new “frozen capital king” of Hong Kong stock IPO.
As of the close of Hong Kong stocks on March 6, Nai Xue’s tea (2150. HK) shares rose more than 10%, Tea Baidao (2555. HK) rose more than 3%, Gu Ming (1364. HK) rose more than 2.7%, Mixue Group (2097. HK) rose nearly 15%. The market capitalization was HK$2.954 billion, HK$13.86 billion, HK$26.485 billion and HK$129.6 billion respectively.
