Luckin gets another de-listing notice from Nasdaq, shares slump 18% (updated)

Luckin Coffee

23/06/2020 14:03

(Adds details, background, shares)
    June 23 (Reuters) - Luckin Coffee Inc  LK.O  disclosed on
Tuesday that it received a de-listing notice from the Nasdaq Inc
 NDAQ.O  last week after it failed to file its annual report,
sending the shares of the  Chinese coffee chain down about 18%.
    This is the second notice from the U.S. stock exchange. The
previous one was issued in May, after the company announced a
probe saying that a top executive fabricated and overestimated
as much as 2.2 billion yuan ($311.5 million) in 2019 sales.
    The latest reason cited by the Nasdaq is in addition to the
two bases disclosed last month - public concerns raised by the
fabricated transactions and the company's failure to disclose
material information.
    The Chinese company, which competes with U.S. coffeehouse
Starbucks  SBUX.O , said the failure to file its annual report
was due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and as it
awaits the result of the internal probe. (https://bit.ly/3fQOMsZ)
 
    The company will hold an extraordinary general meeting next
month to vote on whether to oust several directors, including
chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu.
    Luckin's shares have plunged more than 85% since April since
the internal probe was announced and has resulted in the company
defaulting on a loan secured by pledging millions of shares.
    The shares were down at $2.6 in premarket trading after
rising earlier in the day following a Reuters report that it
picked investment bank Houlihan Lokey  HLI.N , also appointed by
troubled German tech firm Wirecard  WDIG.DE , as an adviser.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2DZ55C

($1 = 7.0635 Chinese yuan renminbi)

 (Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun
Koyyur)
 ((Nivedita.Balu@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223
8780; outside U.S. +91 80 6749 4822/ Twitter: @niveditabalu;))