Shein will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange After several failed attempts in New York and London

It was June 2024 when we reported the news of a possible landing by Shein, the Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant, on the London Stock Exchange. That choice had come after the failure of an attempt to list on Wall Street, where the group had run into resistance from US authorities. Since then, much has changed for Shein: from the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump to increasingly fierce competition with Temu, to the recent French legislative initiatives against ultra-fast fashion. Yet, after two years of delays and obstacles, the Chinese giant appears to have reached a significant milestone. According to Business of Fashion, overnight Shein received the green light from Chinese authorities to proceed with a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Shein's Hong Kong IPO

The green light for the Hong Kong listing came from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the authority that oversees Chinese financial markets and must approve companies with strong ties to China before they can list on any stock exchange in the world. According to documents approved by the regulator, Shein plans to offer up to 341.6 million shares on the market. The deal could raise several billion dollars, although the final amount will depend on the valuation the market assigns to the company, and no official debut date has yet been set.

In simple terms, an IPO (Initial Public Offering) is the moment when a company sells a portion of its shares to the public for the first time, allowing investors to purchase them on the market. For Shein, it means raising new capital to fuel growth and giving existing investors the opportunity to realise value on part of their stakes.

How is Shein doing?

The Hong Kong listing comes at a particularly delicate moment for the Chinese giant, which has seen its valuation shrink dramatically in just a few years. According to Business of Fashion, whereas four years ago Shein was valued at around $100 billion, investors today speak of a value closer to $30 billion, partly due to a very different environment compared to the years of explosive growth. The reasons are manifold: from increasingly fierce competition and legal battles with Temu, to the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, to increased regulatory scrutiny in its key markets. The latest blow came from France, where at the end of June Parliament gave final approval to the very first law introducing an environmental penalty on products from ultra-fast fashion brands, targeting platforms such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress.

Nevertheless, the company remains highly profitable and, according to various reports, is said to have closed 2025 with around $2 billion in net profit, thanks to price increases and significant cost reductions that offset the drop in website traffic recorded following the introduction of US tariffs.