Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Reportedly Files For 2024 IPO In The US

China’s fast-fashion giant Shein has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, Reuters and other news organizations reported.

Shein’s listing would be one of the largest initial public offerings by a Chinese company in the U.S. and could help kickstart an IPO market that has been largely stalled since 2021, with the exceptions of the Instacart, Arm Holdings and Klaviyo listings in September.

Shein has raised some $4.1 billion from private investors, per Crunchbase data. It was last valued at $60 billion in a May funding round. That valuation was down more than a third from a year earlier.

The retailer, known for its inexpensive, on-trend clothing shipped directly from manufacturers, was founded in Nanjing, China, in 2008. In 2022, it changed its official headquarters to Singapore in what was viewed as a pre-IPO move.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have been hired as lead underwriters for the targeted 2024 offering, Reuters reported Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The retailer is targeting an IPO of up to $90 billion, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

A quiet market

A tepid investor reception for new venture-backed IPOs has kept the market for new listings subdued. Instacart and Klaviyo are trading below their IPO prices. Shares of Arm, which was majority-owned by SoftBank, are up about 3% since their debut.

Market watchers who’ve spoken with Crunchbase News said they expect the IPO market to open up somewhat in 2024, in large part because many of the companies in the large stable of unicorn startups — private companies valued at $1 billion or more — are under pressure to create liquidity for investors.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman