Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company has agreed to acquire a significant minority interest in Luckin Coffee, joining controlling shareholder Centurium Capital in a transaction valued at approximately $1 billion.
Mubadala Enters China’s Growing Coffee Market
Luckin has emerged as one of China’s largest consumer chains by building much of its business around app-based ordering, pickup locations and an extensive partnership-store network. The company had 36,310 stores at the end of June 2026, consisting of 23,734 self-operated locations and 12,576 partnership stores.
Most of those stores are in China, including Hong Kong, but Luckin has also expanded into Singapore, Malaysia and the United States. The company added a net 2,714 stores during the second quarter, including eight in the United States, 31 in Malaysia and seven in Singapore. Its average monthly transacting customers reached 112.7 million, up 22.9% from a year earlier.
Second-quarter net revenue rose 28.5% year over year to approximately $2.34 billion (RMB15.89 billion). GAAP operating income increased 22% to $312.3 million (RMB2.12 billion), although the operating margin narrowed to 13.4% from 14.1%. Luckin’s self-operated same-store sales declined 5.3%.
Mohamed Albadr, head of Asia, private equity at Mubadala, said: “We continue to see compelling long-term opportunities in China’s consumer sector. Luckin Coffee has built a differentiated, technology-enabled business with data embedded across customer engagement, product development and store operations. This combination of scale, digital capabilities and rapid product innovation has enabled the company to respond to evolving consumer preferences efficiently and at pace. Building on our longstanding partnership with Centurium, we look forward to working alongside Luckin Coffee’s management team to support the company’s next phase of growth in China and internationally.”
Michael Chen, partner at Centurium Capital, added: “We are pleased to welcome Mubadala as an investor in Luckin Coffee. We are confident that Mubadala’s sector knowledge combined with its global perspective and network will support Luckin Coffee’s continued innovation and long-term development.”
Centurium is a China-focused private equity firm with approximately $7 billion in assets under management, while Mubadala manages a global portfolio valued at about $385 billion.
Filing Reveals the Investment Structure
The announcement described the deal in broad terms, but a Schedule 13D amendment filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission provides more detail. The filing identifies Mubadala as the sole owner of MIC Industrial Investments 4 RSC Ltd., which is becoming a significant limited partner in a Centurium-managed investment vehicle.
Under the arrangement, a newly created entity called Success Cup Limited agreed to acquire 241,095,268 Luckin preferred shares from two Centurium funds. Bank financing is expected to support those acquisitions, with the vehicle’s interests and the acquired shares pledged as security. Centurium’s reported beneficial ownership is not expected to change when the transactions are completed.
Mubadala’s investment vehicle will also be entitled to nominate one person to Luckin’s board, provided that it continues to hold, directly or indirectly, at least 5% of the company’s outstanding shares on an as-converted basis and satisfies other conditions in the agreement. Centurium and the vehicle’s general partner have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the nominee’s appointment.
The filing lists the reporting group’s combined beneficial ownership at approximately 22.08% of Luckin’s outstanding Class A shares on an as-converted basis.
Rather than issuing new operating capital directly to Luckin, the structure transfers existing preferred shares into a continuation vehicle. Kirkland & Ellis, which advised Centurium, said the transaction involved stakes held by Centurium-managed vehicles and included both acquisition financing and the formation of the new fund structure in its announcement about the mandate.
