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What do the IPO numbers say?

Shein’s IPO will begin trading in Hong Kong on Tuesday after years of efforts to go public. The company raised HK$13.6 billion by pricing its shares below the top of the marketed range, giving Shein a market value of $26.3 billion.

That valuation is well below the roughly $100 billion figure that had previously been discussed for the company. Founded in China and now headquartered in Singapore, Shein operates a global e-commerce network selling in more than 150 countries.

Why has the valuation fallen?

The company’s business model has come under increasing scrutiny from regulators, especially in the U.S. and the European Union. Criticism over labor practices and environmental impact helped derail Shein’s planned listing first in the U.S. and later in the U.K.

The company has also faced accusations that it copied product ideas from other designers. Shein says it takes those claims seriously and respects designers’ rights, but ethical and compliance risks have become a major factor in investor pricing.

Another source of financial pressure has been trade policy. The company said sales growth slowed after the U.S. ended a tax exemption in July for low-value parcels, and it posted a $99 million quarterly loss.

  • Removal of the de minimis rule in the U.S., which had allowed parcels worth under $800 to enter duty-free.
  • The European Union’s introduction of a €3 levy on low-value imports.
  • Global trade tensions and war-related demand, cost and delivery pressures linked to Iran.

What will investors watch now?

The Hong Kong sale stands out as the city’s biggest new share offering this year and is being seen as a test of investor appetite for fast-fashion stocks. According to GlobalData analyst Louise Deglise-Favre, the market has entered a more cautious phase toward the performance of fast-fashion companies.

Scale is huge, but profitability remains the question

According to the company’s listing documents, Shein has 281 million active customers, while the number of orders placed in the year ending March 2026 exceeded 1 billion. Even so, cost pressures and regulation have kept alive the question of whether Shein’s old growth model can deliver the same profitability.

Alongside rival Temu, the low-cost cross-border e-commerce model has come under much heavier pressure recently. Shein’s stock market journey will therefore test not only the company’s valuation, but also the financial resilience of fast fashion under tighter rules and higher logistics costs.

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