(Yicai Global) March 9 -- Chinese fusion cuisine restaurant brand Green Tea Group has passed its listing hearing, aiming to go public on Hong Kong's Main Board.

The restaurant operator didn't disclose more details about the timetable and the planned funding scale in its statement yesterday.

Several Chinese eateries have recently announced their initial public offering plans. Some of them are soup chain Yang Guo Fu Mala Tang, as well as fast-food restaurant firms Country Style Cooking and Lao Niang Jiu.

Food consumption upgrading is a major trend in China so innovative restaurant concepts deserve investors' attention, industry insiders said to International Finance News. Post-pandemic, many catering companies have realized the importance of sufficient cash flows so seeking to go public has become one of the intended solutions, the report added.

However, the market is fragmented. Hangzhou-based Green Tea had a 0.5 percent market share among Chinese casual restaurant brands in 2020. In terms of revenue and the number of outlets, it was the country's fourth-largest brand in this segment.

In the first nine months of 2021, Green Tea's revenue jumped 58 percent from a year earlier, according to its prospectus. In the full year of 2020, its revenue tallied CNY1.6 billion (USD253.4 million). The company turned a profit of CNY95 million (USD15 million) between January and September. In the 12 months of 2020, it made a loss of CNY55 million.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected the firm's business in 2020. But recovery has been swift as Green Tea's net profit margin returned to levels seen before the pandemic by last September, according to the firm.

Green Tea opened its first restaurant in Hangzhou in 2008. The company is planning to open from 75 to 100 new restaurants per year from this year till 2024. It was operating almost 240 outlets across China as of Dec. 31, 2021.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi