After months of delays, fast fashion behemoth Shein went public on Tuesday at a fraction of its peak valuation.
On Monday, the Singapore-headquartered retailer priced its IPO at 48.56 Hong Kong dollars, or $6.19, per share, offering about 280 million shares. It raised more than HK$13.2 billion in the IPO.
Its valuation at the IPO price was $26.3 billion, down from its $100 billion private valuation in 2022, according to a Wall Street Journal report in April 2022. The Journal cited people familiar with the matter during a funding round that Shein conducted that year.
The stock got off to a bumpy start on its first day on Tuesday. Five minutes after it started trading, it lost about 9% of its IPO price. It has since recovered slightly, trading for about HK$46.60 around noon local time.
In its prospectus, released on August 24, Shein wrote that it plans to use about 40% of its IPO proceeds to enhance its technological capabilities and another 40% to strengthen its global brand awareness.
Shein has made major inroads into the West in recent years. The US is its biggest consumer market, and it also saw massive growth in the UK in 2024. A 2021 report by the BBC wrote that Shein adds about 6,000 new items to its range daily.
But the IPO comes after a tough year for Shein. Last year, while imposing his first wave of tariffs in April, President Donald Trump ordered the closure of the de minimis trade loophole that allowed small packages under $800 to enter the US tax-free. He also imposed tariffs of up to 120% on the parcels, although these were subsequently reduced.
Shein was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the US de minimis loophole and was hit hard by trade restrictions in its largest consumer market. The company was forced to raise its prices in the US in April.
The company was also under scrutiny by several consumer watchdogs in recent months. In May 2025, the European Commission went after Shein for engaging in multiple practices “in breach of EU law,” such as offering fake discounts and making misleading sustainability claims.
It faced another probe in December, when the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he had launched an investigation into Shein for potential violations “related to unethical labor practices and the sale of unsafe consumer products.”
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