Shein, the online fast-fashion retailer founded in China and now headquartered in Singapore, has launched an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that would value the company at up to $27 billion, with trading set to begin on 1 September. The company is offering nearly 280 million shares at a price of between HK$47.60 and HK$49.50 each, aiming to raise up to HK$13.86 billion ($1.77 billion). The final price will be announced on 31 August. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are among the banks backing the listing.
The valuation marks a dramatic fall from Shein's peak. The company was valued at nearly $100 billion in private funding rounds in 2022, meaning its current IPO price represents a decline of roughly 70%. To soften the blow for investors who bought in at those higher valuations, Shein's prospectus reveals it will pay up to $3.5 billion in cash and additional shares to select pre-IPO investors — almost twice what it expects to raise from the share sale itself. The beneficiaries include entities linked to prominent investment firms such as Boyu Capital, Tiger Global, General Atlantic, Mubadala and others, whose shares carried protections triggered when an IPO is priced below earlier funding rounds.
Shein's path to a public listing has been long and turbulent. Efforts to list in New York were complicated by trade tensions between the United States and China, with analysts noting that Chinese companies face the risk of being delisted from American exchanges. Plans to list in London were similarly derailed by regulatory scrutiny. Hong Kong has emerged as the more viable option, with the city increasingly positioning itself as one of the world's major IPO markets by attracting firms from mainland China. Economists note that Shein is likely to command a stronger valuation there than it would have achieved in London.
Founded in 2008, Shein sells ultra-cheap clothing — including $5 dresses and $10 jeans — to customers in roughly 160 countries, drawing on China's vast, low-cost textile manufacturing sector and sophisticated e-commerce logistics network. Its European customer base reached 156 million average monthly users by the end of last year, placing it alongside Amazon and China's AliExpress as one of the continent's largest online retail platforms. The company says it will use funds raised from the IPO to strengthen its technology capabilities and expand its global presence.
The listing comes amid sustained controversy. Shein has faced protests over alleged poor working conditions at its suppliers, criticism of the environmental impact of its disposable-fashion model, and regulatory penalties in Europe. French authorities have fined the company more than 210 million euros in total over various violations, including product traceability failures and misleading environmental labelling — charges Shein has contested. Italy has also imposed fines over allegedly deceptive environmental claims. The company maintains that it holds suppliers to strict compliance standards and does not tolerate forced labour.