Mubadala Plans Minority Stake in Luckin in $1 Billion Deal

Abu Dhabi state-owned investor Mubadala Investment Company announced an agreement to take a significant minority stake in Chinese coffee giant Luckin Coffee as part of a transaction valued at approximately US$1 billion.

Mubadala is investing alongside Luckin controlling shareholder Centurium Capital, the China-focused private equity firm that took control of Luckin in 2022 amid Luckin’s rebound from a major accounting scandal. The companies did not disclose Mubadala’s individual investment amount or resulting ownership percentage. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions.

The planned investment comes as Luckin continues its extraordinary retail growth, including entering the U.S. market, while pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into coffee roasting, processing and procurement.

“We continue to see compelling long-term opportunities in China’s consumer sector,” Mubadala Head of Asia Private Equity Mohamed Albadr said in the announcement. “Luckin Coffee has built a differentiated, technology-enabled business with data embedded across customer engagement, product development and store operations.”

Mubadala manages approximately $385 billion in assets on behalf of the government of Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. Centurium says it manages approximately $7 billion in assets.

From Scandal to 36,000 Stores

Founded in 2017, Luckin became one of the fastest-growing coffee chains in China before an accounting scandal nearly derailed the company.

An internal investigation in 2020 uncovered fabricated transactions, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later alleged that Luckin intentionally fabricated more than $300 million in retail sales. Luckin was delisted from the Nasdaq and later agreed to pay $180 million to settle SEC accounting fraud charges without admitting or denying the allegations.

Centurium took control of the company in 2022, the same year Luckin emerged from its financial restructuring.

Since then, the company has returned to rapid expansion. Luckin ended 2025 with 31,048 stores after adding more than 8,700 locations during the year. By June 30, the company reported 36,310 stores, including 23,734 company-operated locations and 12,576 stores operating through a partnership model.

Second-quarter revenue reached RMB15.9 billion ($2.34 billion), up 28.5% from a year earlier, while average monthly transacting customers reached 112.7 million, according to the company’s published reports. 

Luckin has also begun extending that footprint beyond China. After entering Singapore and Malaysia, the company made its U.S. debut in New York City in 2025. DCN covered the U.S. launch last year.

Betting Big on Coffee

Luckin’s growth has increasingly extended beyond retail stores and into coffee production infrastructure.

The company opened a large roasting facility in Kunshan, China, in 2024 following an investment of approximately $120 million. Earlier this year, Luckin opened an even larger roasting complex in Qingdao, representing an investment of approximately $415 million.

Luckin said the Qingdao plant has annual roasting capacity exceeding 55,000 metric tons. Along with existing plants and another large facility under construction in Xiamen, Luckin has said its roasting network will eventually exceed 155,000 metric tons of annual capacity.

The company is making similarly large commitments to green coffee. In late 2024, Luckin signed an agreement with Brazilian trade agency ApexBrasil outlining plans to purchase 240,000 metric tons of Brazilian green coffee over five years.

Mubadala’s planned investment also comes as Centurium expands its interests elsewhere in the global coffee business. In April, Nestlé confirmed that it had agreed to sell Blue Bottle Coffee to Centurium, and Nestlé said in July that the deal was completed during the first half of 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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