From a flood of IPO applications to zero new listings over 8 months: The Hong Kong stock market no longer has an appetite for mainland catering companies.
On December 5, 2025, Meet Noodle, honored as the "First Stock of Chinese Noodle Restaurant", was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with an issue price of HK$7.04. On the first trading day, the stock opened sharply lower, closing at HK$5.08 and slumping 27.84% in a single day.
This is not an isolated listing failure of a new stock, but a critical inflection point in the capitalization wave of mainland chain catering enterprises on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As of August 31, 2026, no mainland catering enterprise has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange within the year, and Meet Noodle has become the latest and last listed mainland catering brand on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange so far, which means the listing window for the catering industry on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has shrunk significantly.
Looking back at 2024, Xiao Cai Yuan, Green Tea Group, Mixue Bingcheng, Guming and Hushang Aunty went public one after another, ushering in a small capitalization peak for the catering sector on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
According to incomplete statistics from Thecapital, from 2025 to early 2026, brands including Laoxiangji, Bano International, Jiwu Siwei, Yuanji Yunjiao and Big Pizza submitted listing applications on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange intensively, pushing the catering IPO boom to a peak in form.
However, as of August 31, 2026, hundreds of enterprises have completed their listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year, with the technology track remaining continuously hot, but no mainland catering enterprise has successfully rung the listing bell. Except for Bano International and Yuanji Yunjiao, the prospectuses of other catering enterprises have expired, and catering IPOs have collectively stagnated.
After sorting out relevant information, Thecapital found that the catering sector on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has now formed a clear three-tier differentiation pattern: already listed enterprises facing continuous pressure in the secondary market; enterprises that voluntarily suspended IPO after their prospectuses expired; enterprises that chose to resubmit applications and continue to push forward listing after the prospectuses became invalid. The different situations of the three types of enterprises reflect the thorough shift of the catering industry from the "scale carnival" in the primary market to "quality pricing" in the secondary market.
Valuation Bubble Clearance: The Awkward Situation of Green Tea Group and Meet Noodle
Xiao Cai Yuan, Green Tea Group and Meet Noodle, which were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2024 and 2025 respectively, are the most intuitive samples of this round of catering capital ebb. Although the three enterprises successfully completed their listings, they broke the inherent expectation of "premium on listing" in the industry, and encountered break of issue price, deserted trading and continuous decline of valuation, which sounded the alarm for subsequent catering enterprises planning for IPO.
On December 20, 2024, Xiao Cai Yuan, a representative of mass casual dining, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Despite the continuous expansion of its store scale, the secondary market did not give positive feedback, and its share price went weak for a long time afterwards.
Green Tea Group, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 16, 2025, had an issue price of HK$7.19. Although its public offering obtained a hot subscription of more than 317 times, it went down rapidly after opening flat on the first trading day, closing at HK$6.29, down 12.52% and breaking the issue price directly.
As the "First Stock of Chinese Noodle Restaurant", Meet Noodle was listed in December 2025 with an issue price of HK$7.04. It broke the issue price sharply on the first trading day, and its market value shrank by 27.84% in a single day. The subscription structure shows that retail investors have high enthusiasm for participation, but international professional institutions hold a prudent attitude, revealing the mismatch between the primary market pricing and the real valuation of the secondary market. After listing, its share price has long been running below the issue price, with low daily trading volume and continuously depleted liquidity.
As of the close on August 31, the share price of Xiao Cai Yuan was HK$7.68, down 9.65% from the issue price, with a market value of HK$8.947 billion; the share price of Green Tea Group was HK$5.26, down 26.84% from the issue price, with a market value of HK$3.464 billion; the share price of Meet Noodle was HK$4, down 44.03% from the issue price, with a market value of HK$2.843 billion.
According to analysis by market participants, the secondary market performance of many catering enterprises after listing has reshaped the industry's capital rules: passing the IPO review is only the beginning of capitalization, and earnings quality is the core standard for market pricing. The previous investment logic of relying on store scale and track leader premium has failed.
Industry insiders said that in the past, the capital market blindly chased scale expansion, believing that rapid store opening could boost enterprise value. However, the break of issue price of Green Tea Group and Meet Noodle, as well as the valuation correction of Xiao Cai Yuan, Mixue Bingcheng and Guming, confirm that simple store expansion cannot be converted into real profits and long-term value. Extensive expansion is not only difficult to resist risks such as weak consumption and rising costs, but also will aggravate management loopholes and drag down operating quality.
At present, the institutional valuation logic has been fully switched, focusing on assessing the profitability of single store, same-store performance, cash flow and cost control capabilities. Even if the enterprise successfully passes the listing review, it will still face the problems of issue price breaking and valuation discount if its fundamentals are weak, which also prompts many catering brands to postpone their listing plans.
Batch Expiration: Suspension and Wait-and-See of Laoxiangji and Big Pizza
Thecapital noted that from 2025 to the first half of 2026, Laoxiangji, Bano International, Jiwu Siwei, Yuanji Yunjiao and Big Pizza submitted Hong Kong listing applications intensively, pushing the catering IPO boom to a high point in form. Contrary to the high enthusiasm for listing, as of August 31, the number of catering enterprises successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year is still zero. At the same time, except for Yuanji Yunjiao and Bano International, all other enterprises have suspended their listing processes.
Laoxiangji is a very representative case. It has impacted the capital market five times in five years, voluntarily withdrew its A-share applications twice, and all three Hong Kong listing submissions expired, and it has never entered the hearing link. Its repeated failures in IPO do not stem from insufficient profitability, but from the concentrated exposure of historical compliance issues under penetrating verification.
Defects in property ownership, non-compliance of fire safety, insufficient payment of social security and housing provident fund, and non-standard historical tax issues are common legacies left over from the extensive development stage of the catering industry. Such problems are controllable in daily operation, but under the strict IPO verification, they will become substantial obstacles to listing. After the prospectus expired in July 2026, Laoxiangji has not resubmitted its Hong Kong listing application so far.
Similarly, Big Pizza submitted its listing application in January 2026, and the prospectus expired in July of the same year, and it did not restart the application. The self-service catering track itself has weak profitability stability, high food material loss, rigid labor cost, and is greatly affected by passenger flow fluctuations. The store closure rate and single store profitability have always been the focus of regulatory inquiries. Coupled with the low valuation of the secondary market for the self-service consumption sector and limited institutional recognition, the enterprise chose to postpone the IPO to avoid the risks of low-price issuance and excessive equity dilution.
In this regard, market participants analyzed that the choice of such enterprises to suspend is a market-oriented rational decision. Under the circumstance that compliance rectification has not been completed and the secondary market valuation environment is poor, hasty application will only lead to review stagnation and prospectus expiration, adding unnecessary time and financial costs. "From the underlying logic of the industry, the peaking of the extensive store expansion growth model is the fundamental reason for the cooling of capital. The direct-sale model features heavy assets and high costs, the payback period of new stores is extended, the profitability declines, and the marginal benefit of expansion decreases; the franchise model expands fast, but the headquarters has great difficulty in controlling franchisees, which easily leads to brand loss and uneven profitability of terminal stores."
Industry insiders also believe that the domestic catering industry has entered stock competition, with serious product homogeneity, and it is difficult to build differentiated barriers. The three major costs of food materials, labor and rent continue to rise, and "revenue growth without profit growth" has become the norm in the industry. The capital market no longer recognizes the simple story of opening stores. Most IPO-planned enterprises have not yet run a refined and sustainable profit model, which is difficult to meet the listing requirements of the secondary market.
Forced by Valuation Adjustment: The Passive Situation of Bano International and Yuanji Yunjiao
In contrast to the wait-and-see enterprises, Bano International and Yuanji Yunjiao quickly updated their financial reports, responded to regulatory inquiries after the expiration of their prospectuses, resubmitted materials, and continued to push forward their IPOs.
What drives them to rush for listing is not entirely the demand for financing and development, but more from the hard constraints of the primary market financing valuation adjustment clauses, which force enterprises to insist on pushing forward listing under the environment of tightened review and cold market.
Bano International has experienced two prospectus expirations, and submitted its application for the third time on the day when the prospectus expired on June 17, 2026, with a strong willingness to go public. According to the valuation adjustment clauses in the prospectus, if the qualified listing is not completed before December 1, 2029, Series A investors can request share repurchase. Under the capital pressure, the enterprise cannot choose the timing independently, and can only continue to submit applications.
Yuanji Yunjiao is a sample of the 10,000-store franchise model, with franchise stores accounting for more than 99%, and its core revenue comes from the supply of food materials to franchisees. The company submitted its listing application for the first time in January 2026, the prospectus expired in July, and quickly resubmitted its application on July 30 after obtaining the overseas listing filing approval.
In fact, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange remains highly prudent in the review of the franchise model, requiring penetrating verification of the background of franchisees, investigation of related interest transfer, verification of the real profitability of franchisees, and improvement of the brand control system. The review difficulty is significantly higher than that of the direct-sale model. Despite all the pressures, driven by capital valuation adjustment and capitalization demands, the enterprise still continues to push forward the IPO.
Market participants analyzed that capital valuation adjustment further amplifies the industry differentiation. Bano International and Yuanji Yunjiao are burdened with strict repurchase clauses and can only move forward bravely; Laoxiangji and Big Pizza have less pressure from valuation adjustment, and can prioritize completing compliance rectification and polishing their business, then restart listing at the right time. The two choices have created the current pattern that some enterprises continue to submit listing applications while others choose to wait and see.
Comprehensive Regulatory Tightening, Substantial Rise in Listing Compliance Threshold
Important changes have taken place in the external regulatory environment of the industry. At the end of 2025, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, together with the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, strengthened the performance responsibility of sponsor institutions, raised the due diligence and disclosure standards for consumer tracks including catering, and changed the previous extensive review orientation that focused on revenue and store scale.
When mainland catering enterprises go public in Hong Kong, they need to accept the dual review of Hong Kong Stock Exchange inquiries and domestic and overseas listing filing at the same time, with wider verification dimensions and longer cycle. Regulatory verification penetrates the whole chain of business details: check the data of store opening and closing, same-store sales efficiency and other operating data to prevent false prosperity; strictly investigate historical issues such as social security, taxation, food safety and fire safety, and require the completion of rectification with closed-loop management; carefully review capital matters such as red-chip structure, share entrustment, surprise dividend distribution and valuation adjustment agreements.
As a labor-intensive industry, the catering industry has many historical compliance legacies, and the rectification cycle is often very long, which is difficult to match the original 6-month validity period of the prospectus. This is an important reason for the concentrated expiration of the prospectuses of many enterprises in 2026. Even if the Hong Kong Stock Exchange later extends the validity period of the prospectus to 12 months, the review standards and disclosure requirements have not been relaxed, and the IPO difficulty of catering enterprises has risen substantially.
Catering Capitalization Enters a New Stage of High-quality Development
This round of ebb of Hong Kong catering IPO does not mean that the capital market closes the door for the catering track, but eliminates extensive low-quality targets and forces the industry to upgrade. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has not closed the listing channel for catering enterprises, but the era of telling stories by scale is over; complete compliance, solid profitability and healthy cash flow have become the new listing access standards.
Catering enterprises that can be successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the future need to meet three conditions: first, a closed-loop compliance system, which properly solves historical legacy issues such as taxation, social security, food safety and franchise control; second, a solid operating model, with strong single-store profitability resilience, good cash flow, and no reliance on blind store opening to pursue scale; third, core competitive barriers, which rely on supply chain, digitalization and product iteration to achieve long-term sustainable growth.
This round of capital ebb is a benign clearance of the industry. Internet-famous catering enterprises that rely on marketing hype, scale accumulation and weak compliance will gradually withdraw from the capitalization track; physical catering enterprises that focus on refined operation, strictly abide by the compliance bottom line and polish the real profit model will gain capital dividends.
Catering is a rigid-demand livelihood track with a stable industry base, and will not be abandoned by capital. But the capital market only prices for real profitability and long-term operating value, and no longer pays for the scale bubble. Hong Kong catering IPO has completely bid farewell to the listing boom of extensive expansion, and entered a new stage of high-quality capitalization with strict review, emphasis on quality and value orientation.
This article is from WeChat official account "Thecapital" (ID: thecapital), author: Dai Xianchao, editor: Wu Ren, published with authorization from 36Kr.