Centurium Capital, a private equity investment firm in China, has become the controlling shareholder of Luckin Coffee, having led a consortium to complete a transaction to purchase an aggregate of 383,425,748 Class A ordinary shares of the company, according to a press release.

Consortium members include IDG Capital and Ares SSG Capital Management.

Luckin Coffee, a coffee vending pioneer and a competitor to Starbucks in China, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2021.

The sellers are affiliates of and were formerly controlled by former management members of the company and their families, and are currently in liquidation pursuant to an order of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands and pursuant to orders of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the High Court of Justice of the British Virgin Islands.

On Jan. 17, 2022, the BVI Court sanctioned transactions that form part of a secondary sale as required by the securities purchase agreement that gave effect to the secondary sale.

Luckin Coffee's board of directors and joint provisional liquidators determined the secondary sale to be in the long-term best interest of the company and accordingly approved the transaction.

Upon the closing of the secondary sale, Centurium Capital has become the controlling shareholder of Luckin Coffee, holding more than 50% of the voting interest of the company.

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