Starbucks has announced it will sell a controlling stake in its Chinese retail operations as it seeks to revitalise performance in a fiercely competitive market it once dominated.

Hong Kong-based investment firm Boyu Capital will hold up to 60 percent of a new joint venture operating 8,000 Starbucks stores across China, under a deal which values the business at around $4 billion.

Seattle-based Starbucks said on Monday it will retain a 40-percent stake and continue to own the brand and intellectual property.

The partnership marks a strategic shift for Starbucks after more than 26 years in China, where it has seen its market share fall to 14 percent in 2024 from a peak of 42 percent in 2017.

China represents Starbucks’s second biggest market globally, though the company has faced increas

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