Luckin Coffee is exploring plans to relist its shares in the US, nearly two years after an accounting scandal in which the Chinese coffee chain fabricated more than $300m of sales, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Once touted as the biggest challenger to Starbucks’ dominance in China, Luckin was delisted from the Nasdaq exchange in June 2020 and six months later agreed to pay $180m to settle accounting fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claimed it had raised more than $864m from investors during the time of the falsified accounts.
According to two people with knowledge of discussions among the company’s senior management, Luckin is exploring whether to relist on Nasdaq, possibly as soon as the end of this year.