Fast-fashion giant Shein set to list for $64b 2024-06-05    EARLE GALE

Industry experts expect Shein, the Chinese-founded online fast-fashion giant, to start the process to list on the London Stock Exchange in the coming days, with a value of about $64 billion, making it one of the biggest deals in the exchange's history.

The Singapore-headquartered company will likely file the necessary paperwork either this week or next, the BBC reported.

A source told Agence France-Presse that the UK filing would be a confidential IPO, which affords companies more flexibility and the ability to hold back information on future strategy ahead of floating.

It could, however, take several months to finalize the launch, the source added.

Shein's IPO is expected in the United Kingdom because the company faced regulatory hurdles and intense scrutiny in the United States earlier this year when it tried to list there.

Reuters reported in January that Shein had filed the necessary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential New York listing. But it subsequently faced resistance from US lawmakers over its links to China, at a time of trade tension between Washington and Beijing, Reuters reported.

Colleen McHugh, chief investment officer at Wealthify, said on BBC Radio 4's Today program: "This could be big news for the London stock market — there haven't exactly been many IPOs this year."

Experts said the flotation of Shein, which owns the online UK fashion brand Missguided, would be London's most high-profile share sale for more than a decade, and likely the second-largest ever, slotting in behind the 2011 stock market debut of the commodities trading and mining group Glencore International.

Sky News reported earlier this year that Donald Tang, Shein's executive chairman, had met UK Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt to discuss the proposed IPO.

Hunt's governing Conservatives are currently trailing far behind the main opposition Labour Party ahead of a general election due on July 4.

"Confirmation of (the) listing may be fresh election campaign fodder for the Conservatives, who are likely to say it demonstrates that government efforts in wooing firms to launch IPOs in London are paying off," Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told AFP.

Agencies contributed to this story.