IPOS - Auntea Jenny Steeped By Rivals In Flood Of Bubble Tea IPOs | Benzinga
Key Takeaways:
- Premium tea chain Auntea Jenny has filed to list in Hong Kong, reporting its profit nearly tripled in the first three quarters of last year to 320 million yuan
- The company uses a franchise business model, similar to many of its peers that have also filed for similar recent listings
By Lau Chi Hang
"Today is cruel, tomorrow will be even crueler. The day after tomorrow is beautiful, but most people will die tomorrow night,” once said Jack Ma, Chinese internet legend and founder of Alibaba.
While Ma may have been talking about Alibaba’s core e-commerce business, his words could also apply to China’s overheated premium tea market these days. And his words may not even be strong enough for a turbulent sector that has produced at least four Hong Kong IPO candidates since the start of the year alone.
Instead, a more apt modification of Ma’s words for this frothy sector might be: "Today is very cruel, tomorrow will be even crueler. The day after tomorrow may not be beautiful either, but that doesn’t matter because most premium tea chains will be dead by then.”
The past decade has seen China’s premium tea market explode, with hundreds of thousands of stores popping up selling a wide range of products to just about anyone with money to spare in this nation of 1.4 billion. As companies tap out investors for new money to fund their expansions, many are now turning to Hong Kong’s stock market for new money to keep growing.
Nayuki (2150.HK) was the lone Hong Kong-listed company from the group for several years, but Mixue Bingcheng and Guming have all recently filed to join it. Now, the folksy-named Auntea Jenny (Shanghai) Industrial Co. Ltd. has also jumped on the bandwagon, formally applying for a Hong Kong IPO earlier this month.
A good story is a must for the crowded field of premium tea chains. Nayuki’s started with a blind date, while Auntea Jenny is the business child of Shan Weijun and Zhou Rongrong, a former pair of big company middle and ...