(Yicai) March 7 -- Chagee Holdings has received approval from China’s securities regulator for an initial public offering in New York, paving the way for the first listing by a Chinese bubble tea chain in the United States after rival Mixue Ice Cream & Tea’s blockbuster debut in Hong Kong at the start of this week.

Chengdu-based Chagee plans to issue up to 64.732 million ordinary shares and list them on either the Nasdaq Stock Market or the New York Stock Exchange, according to a notice issued yesterday by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Mixue, China’s largest bubble tea chain, debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 3 in an IPO that raised HKD3.45 billion (USD477 million), the biggest in the Chinese special administrative region so far this year. The retail portion of the share offering was oversubscribed by 5,258 times.

Founded in 2017, Chagee had total sales of CNY10.8 billion (USD1.5 billion) in 2023 and CNY5.8 billion (USD800 million) in the first quarter of 2024, founder Zhang Junjie said in a recent speech.

It has completed two rounds of financing so far, banking CNY160 million (USD22 million) in January 2021 in a fundraiser co-led by venture capital firm XVC and Fosun Group and a further CNY160 million (USD22 million) in May 2021 in a round led by Rothsfortune Investment Management, with follow-on investment from XVC.

Globalization is central to Chagee's business strategy. At the end of last year, the company also had stores in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. On its website, the company says it aims to serve consumers in 100 countries and serve up 15 billion cups of modern oriental tea each year.

Chagee embarked on an aggressive expansion drive last year, doubling its store count. As of Dec. 31, it had more than 6,000 stores, including over 150 overseas.

Mixue was the world’s largest food and beverage company by number of stores at the end of last year, with 46,479 in 11 countries, making it bigger than Starbucks and McDonald’s.

Editor: Tom Litting