Shein prepares for a stock market debut far from its best days
The fast fashion company is worth 73% less than four years ago and registers red numbers
BarcelonaThe fast fashion giant Shein is preparing for one of the most anticipated stock market debuts, although it is doing so far from its best days. After failed attempts to land on the London and New York stock exchanges – mainly due to doubts from Beijing regulators – the Singapore-based Chinese company will begin trading this Tuesday on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
While the company had planned to announce its initial market capitalization on Monday, the data has not yet been disclosed. However, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, the company has set a price of 48.56 Hong Kong dollars (5.35 euros) for each of the 280 million shares it plans to put into circulation. The figures would equate to a fundraising of close to 1.5 billion euros and a market valuation of the company of just over 23 billion euros.
This amount is far from the highs recorded in 2022, when Shein was valued at 98.2 billion dollars (almost 85 billion euros) after completing one of its funding rounds. The difference between the valuation from four years ago and the current one would be 73%.
Red numbers
The Hong Kong debut comes at a tough time for the company, which experienced its expansion coinciding with the economic recovery after the covid-19 crisis. During the first quarter of this 2026, the Asian fast fashion giant recorded losses of 99 million dollars (about 85 million euros). In turn, revenues barely increased year-on-year during the first three months of the year. Between January and March, the group's turnover reached 9,025 million dollars (7,750 million euros), barely 1% more than last year.
A large part of this slowdown is explained by the regulatory pressure applied by both the United States and the European Union, its two main markets which, jointly, represent about 60% of its revenue.
Last year, Washington eliminated the tariff exemption on imports under $800. In fact, Shein's revenue to the American giant has fallen by 14% during the first quarter. In a similar vein, Brussels launched this summer the new three-euro tax on low-cost packages from countries outside the EU bloc.
Rising costs
With its stock market flotation, Shein also seeks to obtain more financing to cope with the rising cost of its logistics and to carry out investments that allow it to gain competitiveness. Other companies like Temu are direct competition, and giants like Inditex are also present in the same market.
Despite everything, the Hong Kong-based group remains on the podium of the fast fashion sector on a global scale, with a share of 1.9%. According to data from the Chinese consultancy CIC, collected by Europa Press, only Nike, with 3%, and Inditex, with 2.5%, appear ahead of it.