Stock Market Trader Having A Conversation On Headphones While Using Tablet Computer

If youโ€™re anything like me, you are currently sitting fireside at your favorite red leather chair in your estateโ€™s least formal study, heating a snifter of cognac over candlelight while reading the ticker tape on all the latest coffee stock market news. โ€œJoe Everymanโ€ all my friends over at the NYSE call me. Why, even the sapphire-encrusted Chemex collar I had custom made is blue.

And as Iโ€™m sure many of you fine fellow Joe Everypeople already know, but there is quite a bit of buzz on the various trading floors. But for those who may have missed the coffee newsโ€”oh how easy it is to lost the time practicing the violin while staring wistfully out the bay window overlooking the freshly-manicured gardenโ€”I have collated and compiled all the most recent transactions to help you filter your coffee portfolio. A portafilter I call it. Hopefully this will help provide a modest increase in your net worth, at least enough to purchase that new summer home youโ€™ve been eyeing.

JDE Peetโ€™s Eyeing a $2.5 Billion IPO

First some good news. JDE Peetโ€™s, the coffee conglomerate containing brands like Douwe Egberts, Peetโ€™s, Maxwell House, Gevalia, Stumptown, and Intelligentsia, is poised to make a big splash as potentially the yearโ€™s largest IPO when it begins trading on Euronext Amsterdam on June 3rd. According to Reuters, the stock is expected to range from โ‚ฌ30 to โ‚ฌ32.25 per share, giving the โ€œworld’s No. 2 packaged coffee makerโ€ a valuation of โ‚ฌ16 billion ($17.5 billion).

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Per Reuters, demand for JDE Peetโ€™s is already with, with โ€œbooks [being] covered in excess of the full offer size within hours of openingโ€ including that of (my croquet partner) George Sorosโ€™ Quantum Partners. Acorn Holdings, JDE Peetโ€™s โ€œmajor shareholderโ€ controlled by JAB Holding Co, is said to be selling off up to 25.8 million of their shares as well, with the total IPO expected to raise $2.5 billion.

Luckin Coffee Under Threat of Being Delisted

Turns out some unicorns donโ€™t actually exist. Luckin Coffee, the Chinese coffee startup that came out of nowhere to challengeโ€”and arguably defeatโ€”Starbucks in its home country, is not looking so hot right now. Per Shine, after a six-week suspension from being traded on the Nasdaq for financial fraudโ€”the company fabricated $310 million worth of transactionsโ€”Luckinโ€™s shares dropped by as much as 45% on the first day of trading. With stocks once selling $50 a share back in January, โ€œShares at the closing bell on Friday were trading at $1.39.โ€

And now, Luckin may be removed from the Nasdaq entirely. On Tuesday, May 19th, one day before trading was set to resume, the Xiamen-based coffee company received notice that the Nasdaq was making a delisting recommendation, which would remove the company from being traded. Luckin has appealed the recommendation, and a hearing is expected to take place in the next 30 to 45 days to settle the matter.

Kopi Kenanagan Makes a Move

When one Asian coffee titan falls, another rises. The new entrant is Kopi Kenangan, a fast-rising Indonesian coffee chain that just raised $109 million in series B funding, according to Forbes. And while that number itself is impressive, the funding was led by Sequoia India, โ€œthe famed venture capital known to breed unicorns.โ€

Cut from the same cloth as Luckinโ€”a tech savvy, on-demand, app-based coffee ordering brand with smaller retail storefrontsโ€”Kopi Kenanagan has gone from 30 stores in 2018 to 324 today with a current valuation at $477 million. But the company doesnโ€™t plan on stopping there. Much like Luckin did in China, Kopi Kenanagan is taking an aggressive growth strategy to unseat Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in Indonesia; they plan on opening one new store a day until they reach 500 at the end of the year, eclipsing the 400 storefronts Starbucks currently has in the country.

And donโ€™t just take investment advice from me. Listen to my dear friends Jay-Z and Serena Williams, both of whom have invested in Kopi Kenanagan.

Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.

Top image ยฉ Adobe Stock/DC Studio

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