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Luckin, which raised $561 million in May in a U.S. initial
public offering, said on Monday that it had signed a memorandum
of understanding to set up a joint venture with Kuwait's
Americana Group to launch the business in the Greater Middle
East and India regions, without providing further details.
"This collaboration represents Luckin Coffee's first step toward
bringing its leading products from China to the world," Luckin
Coffee's Founder and CEO, Jenny Qian Zhiya, said in a statement.
Kesri Kapur, CEO of Americana Group which operates 1,800
restaurants and 29 food production sites in the Middle East,
said the Greater Middle East and India regions provided
promising prospects for expansion.
Luckin has been locked in a supercharged expansion plan to
unseat Starbucks as the No.1 coffee chain in the world's
second-largest economy and aims to open 2,500 stores in China
this year.
It has spent cash to offer lower prices, discounts, speedy
delivery and promotions on social media, which in turn pushed
Starbucks to form a tie-up with Chinese tech giant Alibaba <BABA.N>
to deliver coffee to customers.
Luckin has also expanded outside coffee, offering customers
other beverages such as grapefruit cheese jasmine tea and food
items, including Sichuan cold noodles with pulled chicken via
its app.
(Reporting by Pei Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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