Shares in fast-fashion retailer Shein fell 10 percent after its long-awaited trading debut in Hong Kong on Tuesday, after the company raised $1.7 billion in a high-profile initial public offering (IPO), UNN reports, citing AFP.
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Fast-fashion retailer Shein fell 10% on Tuesday in its long-awaited trading debut in Hong Kong, after the company raised $1.7 billion during a high-profile initial public offering (IPO).
The share offering came after the company's plans to list in New York and London were derailed by regulatory scrutiny, but in July it received approval from Chinese authorities to sell shares in the southern financial hub.
However, shortly after the opening, the shares fell to 43.72 Hong Kong dollars, compared with the listing price of 48.56 Hong Kong dollars.
The IPO valued the company at approximately $26.3 billion — significantly less than the nearly $100 billion raised during private funding rounds in 2022.
Shein, known for its ultra-low prices and rapid clothing deliveries, said the proceeds from the sale would be used to fund its technological capabilities and expand its international presence.
Between 2021 and 2022, the online retailer moved its headquarters to Singapore, which analysts believe was done to avoid increasing global scrutiny of Chinese companies.
By the end of 2025, its European customer base had grown to 156 million users on average per month, making it one of the largest e-commerce platforms on the continent alongside China's AliExpress and U.S. giant Amazon, which have 193 million and approximately 180 million users, respectively.
The company has been criticized for its environmental impact and allegations of human rights violations, and is also facing growing competition from low-cost e-commerce companies such as Temu and AliExpress.
Executive Chairman Donald Tang told AFP last year that the company has "zero tolerance" for forced labor.
Morningstar analyst Lorraine Tan noted in an August report that revenue growth had "approached the rates seen in the fast-fashion industry and will be below 10 percent in 2025."
She added that the decline in valuation "reflects waning investor interest in Shein shares."
The company has developed an impressive model that is difficult to replicate, said Ken Pucker, a sustainable-fashion expert at Tufts University.
But its unprecedented growth has also created problems related to "newly introduced taxes and tariffs, deteriorating sustainability, privacy and copyright metrics, as well as competition," he added.
"The timing is not ideal, given the company's slowing growth. Nevertheless, it has been trying to go public for about five years, and I assume many of its investors were eager to cash out," he added.
In 2025, Shein reported full-year net profit of $2.06 billion, but in the first three months of this year it posted a loss of $99 million after the United States ended the exemption from import duties for small parcels.