Bawang Chaji fearlessly fought the Sino-US trade war, and the stock price soared by nearly 50% on the first day of its IPO in the United States

Despite ongoing trade tensions between China and the United States, Chinese tea chain Chagee ( Bawang Chaji ) shares soared nearly 50% on the first day of the Nasdaq IPO. Its founder and CEO, Junjie Zhang, has a net worth of $2.1 billion, making him one of the Bloomberg billionaires.

Bawang Chaji fearlessly fought the Sino-US trade war, and the IPO soared by nearly 50% on the first day

As the U.S. IPO market has almost stagnated, and previously U.S. Treasury Secretary Bencente (Scott Bessent) has said that the possibility of delisting shares of Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges is not ruled out. But Chagee Holdings Ltd., China's high-end tea drinker, priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $28 a share on Wednesday, at the upper edge of the expected $26 to $28 range. Chagee sold 14.7 million shares to raise $411 million, valuing the company at approximately $5 billion.

The stock traded on the NASDAQ on Thursday (4/17) under the ticker symbol "CHA" and opened at $33.75 per share. Chagee shares initially surged as much as 49 percent, but gave up most of their gains in afternoon trading.

The company is preparing to open its first U.S. store at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles later this spring.

Bawang Chaji takes the high-end route to create Zen Chinese style

According to Bloomberg, founder Zhang Junjie founded Chagee in 2017 in Yunnan, a province in southwest China that borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. The company's name is derived from the classic Chinese tragedy "Farewell My Concubine", which tells the romantic farewell story of Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, and his concubine Yu Ji. Its logo features the image of Hua Dan ( a young woman in Peking Opera ).

Unlike other bubble tea brands, Chagee focuses on making premium milk tea using traditional Chinese blends such as green, black, and oolong. Its store style blends oriental tea culture with modern design to create a unique Zen Chinese style store design. Some branches also have extra-long bars, allowing consumers to watch the tea brewers up close, enhancing the immersive experience. A drink sells for just over $2.

According to the data in the prospectus, the size of China's ready-made tea market is expected to increase from RMB273 billion last year to RMB426 billion ( about US$58 billion ) as measured by gross merchandise transactions. The data shows that the average price of high-end tea drinks is 17 yuan per cup, (2.30 US ) dollars, accounting for 26% of the market share last year, compared to 11% in 2019.

Chagee has more than 6,440 stores, the vast majority of which are located in China, with stores in overseas regions such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. According to the prospectus, about 6,270 of these teahouses are franchised teahouses and 169 are company-owned teahouses.

This article Bawang Chaji fearlessly fought the Sino-US trade war, and the stock price soared nearly fifty percent on the first day of the IPO in the United States, which first appeared in chain news ABMedia.