Luckin Coffee (LKNCY) Replaces Charles Zhengyao Lu With Jinyi Guo

By Annie Baker • Jul 14, 2020
  • Luckin Coffee Inc (OTCMKTS: LKNCY) announced that it has replaced its chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu with Jinyi Guo

Luckin Coffee Inc (OTCMKTS: LKNCY) announced that it has replaced its chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu with Jinyi Guo. Along with being the new chairman, Jinyi Guo will also be the permanent CEO. Prior to these management changes, Guo was the acting CEO of the company. 

The decision to replace Lu is happening several weeks after Luckin said that Lu would stay on as chairman following a proposal to oust him due to an internal fraud investigation.

A few months ago, Luckin was internally probed due to the reporting of fake annual sales of an extra $300 million. Due to the internal probe, several of the company’s directors proposed ousting Lu.

Due to the internal probe issues, Luckin’s stock price plummeted and the Nasdaq suspended the trading of the China-based coffee chain’s shares last month.

Lu is also known as being the controlling shareholder of Luckin along with being the founder of auto rental company Car and Chinese ride-hailing service Ucar.

Luckin also removed several other directors from the board along with Lu, including David Hui Li, Erhai Liu, and Sean Shao. And two new directors were named following an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on July 5 and a board meeting the week after.

The two new independent directors that were appointed include Jie Yang (vice dean of the China University of Political Science and Law) and Ying Zeng (previously a partner law firm Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe).