Shein shares slide 10% in Hong Kong trading debut
Fast-fashion retailer completes long-delayed IPO at bargain-basement valuation
Shein shares fell sharply below their offer price on Tuesday as the fast-fashion retailer made its long-awaited trading debut in Hong Kong.
The company had priced shares at HK$48.56 ($6.19) in the middle of its range, raising HK$13.6bn ($1.7bn) and valuing Shein at just over $26bn.
However, the stock fell as much as 10 per cent in the first minutes of trading to about HK$43.72 ($5.58), pushing the online retailer’s valuation below $25bn, before regaining some ground.
“What the consumer sectors offer just doesn’t seem to be particularly compelling compared to technology at the moment,” said William Bratton, head of cash equity research for Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas.
The lacklustre debut comes in stark contrast to other recent IPOs in Asia, with memory-chip maker CXMT and humanoid robot maker Unitree both soaring about 460 per cent on their trading debuts.
Covid pandemic lockdowns and social media hype from “Shein hauls” drew young consumers to its affordable fashion and earned the company a valuation of about $100bn following a 2022 private fundraising round.
However, investor enthusiasm began to ebb later that year and the next fundraising valued Shein at $66bn. The company is also battling trade investigations in the EU and US.
Shein’s previous attempts to list in New York and London were derailed by opposition from politicians and regulators amid scrutiny of its Chinese supply chain. In July Chinese regulators approved the company’s application to list in Hong Kong.
The company is now one of the world’s biggest listed fashion groups with a valuation roughly equal to Swedish retailer H&M, although both are worth far less than Zara owner Inditex at about $213bn.
If the share price decline persists throughout Shein’s first day of trading, Goldman Sachs — the “stabilisation manager” for the initial public offering — is likely to step in and buy its stock on the open market.
Shein’s net profit fell to $2bn last year after peaking at $3.4bn in 2024, while net profit margins narrowed sharply to 4.9 per cent from 8.7 per cent over the same period.
The company reported a net loss of $99mn in the first quarter as it flagged the risks of US and EU trade tensions to its business. In May 2025, Washington scrapped a tariff exemption for small packages that Shein had used to ship clothing directly to customers in the US.