Switzerland’s Partners Group plans to fully divest from Green Tea Group, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese casual dining restaurant chain, by selling its entire 15.96% stake in the company, according to a stock exchange filing.
Green Tea Group, which operates over 600 restaurants primarily in China, disclosed in its voluntary filing on April 9 that Partners Group seeks to sell over 106.1 million ordinary shares, representing about 15.96% of its total issued shares, through three transactions.
Partners Gourmet, which is ultimately controlled by Partners Group, will sell more than 60 million shares in the Chinese restaurant chain through a block trade via two placing agents, JP Morgan Securities and GF Securities. This tranche is expected to be completed on April 13, according to the filing.
Its disposal also comprises a conditional sale of over 23 million shares to an investment fund, and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a sale of the remaining shares to a strategic corporate buyer for up to $30 million.
Green Tea Group’s market cap stood at HK$5.27 billion ($672.7 million) as of market close on April 9.
The completion of the sales, which are subject to regulatory approvals, will see Partners Group cease to be a shareholder of the Chinese restaurant chain after first investing in it nearly nine years ago.
Partners Group’s move to fully divest from Green Tea Group comes less than one year after the Chinese company went public after raising HK$1.21 billion ($154.4 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May 2025.
The Hong Kong IPO was a milestone for Green Tea Group in a Partners Group-backed growth journey that started in May 2017 when the Swiss private markets firm first acquired a significant minority stake.
Through value creation initiatives, including enhanced marketing strategy, optimised customer offerings, and new market entries, Partners Group oversaw an eight-fold increase in Green Tea Group’s restaurant count between 2017-2025. At the time of its IPO, Green Tea Group operated a network of over 490 outlets across 140 cities, versus just 78 across 19 Chinese cities in 2017.
In the filing, Green Tea Group’s board of directors, led by its founder and CEO Wang Qinsong, expressed “sincere gratitude” to Partners Group for its support throughout the group’s development stages and welcomed new investors.
The full exit of Partners Group “will not have a material impact on the business operation and the financial position of the group,” according to the filing.
Founded in 2008 with the opening of its first restaurant in Hangzhou, Green Tea Group designs its restaurants and menus to offer a dining experience based on eastern China’s Zhejiang cuisine with modern twists and priced affordably at an average of about 56 Chinese yuan ($8.19) per customer.
In its latest financial results, the group posted revenue of almost 4.8 billion yuan ($702.1 million) through 2025, up 24.1% year-on-year. Its adjusted net profit grew by 41% from the previous year to about 508.9 million yuan ($74.4 million).
By the end of 2025, the group recorded over 600 operating stores across four countries, including China, Singapore, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur, with plans underway to enter new markets like Japan, South Korea, Europe, and the US, according to its website.
