Last month Boston-based Advent International and Taiwan’s CDIB Capital in association with Mirae Asset Private Equity and the Sassoon family bought large stakes in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf which operates under the name of International Coffee & Tea LLC. Mel Elias, CEO of The Coffee Bean stated that the company may consider an IPO either in the U.S. or possibly Singapore or a strategic sale in order to fund accelerated growth in Southern California and Asia. To expand in Asia The Coffee Bean will have to compete with Starbucks Corp. – the largest coffee chain in the world which controls almost one third of the $8.9 billion Asian market. The Coffee Bean has a 3% market share with a sizable presence in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Data from Euromonitor indicates that the industry’s greatest growth is happening in China and Southeast Asia and Mr. Elias believes now is the time to drive expansion.
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