Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company, together with controlling shareholder Centurium Capital, has completed a strategic minority investment of approximately $1 billion in Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee, according to BigGo Finance. The transaction is structured as a secondary share transfer rather than an issuance of new shares, meaning the invested capital did not enter Luckin Coffee's corporate accounts.
Mubadala, which manages approximately $385 billion in assets, has previously invested in cross-border e-commerce platform SHEIN and acquired core businesses from UCB Pharma in the Chinese market. BigGo Finance noted that market speculation links the transaction to potential brand acquisitions or moves facilitating Luckin's return to a major United States listing.
Luckin Coffee posted total net revenue of CNY 49.288 billion (approximately $7.3 billion) in 2025 with 36,310 stores, more than four times Starbucks' footprint in China. The report noted Luckin's turnaround following its 2020 delisting, including a $180 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2022 alongside bankruptcy restructuring.
BigGo Finance reported that Luckin faces ongoing margin pressures, with fourth-quarter 2025 net profit dropping 39% year-over-year to CNY 518 million, driven by a 94.5% surge in quarterly delivery costs. For the full year 2025, delivery expenses rose 143.8% to CNY 6.879 billion amid intensifying cross-category competition across China's beverage sector.
Sources
- finance.biggo.com · 2026-09-26
