Shares of Chinese bubble tea firm Chabaidao plunge nearly 40% in Hong Kong debut

Shares of Chinese bubble tea chain Chabaidao tumbled almost 40% on its trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The stock, officially listed as Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial, fell as low as 10.84 Hong Kong dollars in the late morning — about 38% below its IPO price of HK$17.50.

The bubble tea firm's IPO was the largest listing in Hong Kong in 2024 so far, with the company garnering net proceeds of HK$2.59 billion from its IPO, before listing expenses, according to its prospectus filed to the Hong Kong exchange.

The company said it ranked third in China's freshly made tea shop market in terms of retail sales value in 2023, with a market share of 6.8%

Chabaidao offered 90% of its 147.7 million shares in a global offering, while the remainder 10% were offered in a public offer in Hong Kong.

However, the public offer was only 0.5 times subscribed, leading the firm to reallocate the remainder of the shares to the global offer, which was 1.11 times subscribed.

In the prospectus, Chabaidao revealed that revenue for the financial year ended 2023 stood at 5.7 billion yuan ($786.8 million) and gross profit came in at 1.96 billion yuan in the same period.

From 2021 to 2023, the compounded annual growth rate for its net profit reached 21.6%, it added.