The Chicken Hotpot House $CCH Holdings Ltd.(CCHH)$ that recently went public didn’t list on the main Nasdaq board—it rang the bell on the Nasdaq Capital Market, the lowest-tier segment of the Nasdaq Exchange.
Think of it as the US version of Malaysia’s LEAP Market:
low entry requirements, low minimum market cap, and modest financial thresholds.
The key difference? Retail investors can still trade these stocks freely.
So when CCHH crashed over 82% recently, it wasn’t because of panic selling. The truth is far simpler—there was almost no liquidity. Trades were thin, with gaps of 45 minutes and even 70 minutes between transactions.
In plain English:
during that flash crash, there were basically no buyers, only a handful of sellers.
That single drop was enough to push CCHH into international financial headlines. If nothing else, it did manage to grab global attention—one way or another.
But let’s be real. Most US investors are unlikely to touch a chicken hotpot chain listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. It’s the same logic as Malaysia’s LEAP Market—would you buy those stocks? Probably not, unless someone you trust strongly encouraged you.
Now let’s look at the fundamentals.
According to CCHH’s latest annual report, revenue came in at USD 8.91 million, down from USD 9.77 million the year before. The bright spot? Net profit jumped nearly 1.5 times to USD 913,000 (about RM3.78 million).
Digging deeper, company-owned restaurants generated USD 6.64 million, making up 74.5% of total revenue.
CCHH currently operates 34 outlets:
16 company-owned,
18 franchised.
That means each company-owned outlet—including two food court outlets—produced about USD 415,000 a year.
Break it down monthly, and each outlet generates only USD 34,000 (around RM143,000). That’s… not exactly impressive.
Now compare that with Oriental Kopi, which also rang the bell this year—but on Bursa Malaysia.
Oriental Kopi posts around RM450 million in annual revenue. Even if you assume 90% comes from F&B, that’s roughly RM400 million. Spread across 29 company-owned outlets, each outlet delivers about RM13.8 million a year, or RM1.14 million a month.
That’s ten times what Chicken Hotpot House makes per outlet.
Here’s where it gets wild.
At its peak, CCHH’s market cap hit USD 289 million, or nearly RM1.2 billion.
Translated differently, each company-owned outlet—including food court stalls—was valued at about RM75 million.
Which means a food court stall selling RM15 meals was, at one point, valued at close to RM70–75 million. Generous pricing, generous valuation—truly compassionate capitalism.
Add to that the fact that CCHH chose to fly all the way to the US to list, instead of listing locally. The strategy behind this move is… complex, to say the least.
Maybe the founders were sold a beautiful dream. Maybe the dream sold itself.
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