Shein is finalizing preparations for a stock market listing in Hong Kong, after years of shifting plans and international controversy, with a valuation far below the one it commanded in 2022, as sales slow and tariffs bite.
The fast-fashion platform was founded in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing in 2012, though it did not become widely known until the Covid-19 pandemic, when online sales surged. In 2022, Shein moved its headquarters to Singapore, partly to distance itself from its Chinese roots and pursue a listing on a foreign exchange.
That year, the company was valued at close to $100 billion. In 2023, Shein began preparing a public offering in New York, but scrutiny from US authorities over alleged forced-labor risks in its supply chains, most of which are based in China, derailed the plan.
The company then turned to London, where it ran into a clash between British and Chinese regulators, who also oversee Shein despite its relocated headquarters. The sticking point involved language describing Shein's links to the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that has faced allegations of human rights violations.
China's regulator has the final say
It was ultimately China's securities regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), that set the terms. By 2025, Shein was considering moving its headquarters back to its country of origin, with an eye toward using Hong Kong as the venue for selling its shares.
Last month, the CSRC approved Shein's listing in the former British colony, where the company would sell about 342 million shares. Trading could begin in September or October, according to estimates from the consultancy Dao Insights.
Dao Insights said Shein's three-year path to a listing shows that where a company lists is now as much a geopolitical decision as a financial one, adding that Hong Kong has become a convenient middle ground and a bridge between Chinese companies and global investors.
Those shifts have pushed Shein's valuation down to between $40 billion and $50 billion, roughly half its peak.
A difficult financial moment
The Hong Kong listing process revealed the group's detailed accounts for the first time, and the numbers arrived at a rough moment. Shein earned more than $2 billion in 2025, a 39% drop from the previous year, and then posted a loss of $99 million in the first quarter, with revenue growing just 1.1% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Shein attributed the slowdown partly to its business in the United States, where revenue fell 14% in the quarter after Washington ended a tariff exemption for low-value shipments, a segment in which Shein had positioned itself as one of the world's leading players.
Global footprint and mounting criticism
Shein, which manufactures mainly in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and operates in about 160 countries and regions, became the world's third-largest fashion retailer in 2024, behind Nike and Adidas. That growth has also drawn criticism over its environmental and labor impact, the sale of illegal products, and allegedly deceptive commercial practices.
Europe, which still accounts for more than 35% of Shein's revenue, could pose a fresh problem for the company. Since July 1, Brussels has ended duty-free treatment for packages worth less than 150 euros, imposing a fee of at least 3 euros. The measure is intended to slow the flow of cheap imports from Chinese platforms including Shein, Temu and AliExpress.
The consultancy Moby was blunt in its assessment of the coming listing, calling it too little, too late. Moby said Shein's upcoming stock market debut looks more like a way to finally close an unresolved matter than a strategic business opportunity.
