BEIJING, November 30 (TMTPost)—China-based online fast fashion giant Shein seems closer to its long-awaited initial pubic offering (IPO).

Credit：Visual China

Shein has confidentially filed for IPO in the United States and could go public as early as 2024, CNBC cited people familiar with the matter. While it’s unclear how much Shein is worth currently, its valuation has been a key point of debate among the company and its advisors, according to the sources, noting that it was last valued at $66 billion. The people said Shein has hired Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to be lead underwriters on the offering.

A confidential filling allows Shein to make any necessary adjustments to its paperwork and answer questions from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the next few months. Once the company gets ready for IPO, the filling will be made public and its communications with the SEC will be released.

Reuters’ sources also said Shein has made the confidential filling and Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley serve as its lead underwriters. The online retailer was said to list in U.S. next year and could be one of the most valuable Chinese firms to launch new shares sales in New York. One of the sources said Shein has started low-profile roadshows for the float in the U.S. A Bloomberg source revealed the same news about Shein’s confidential filling, and mentioned the same three abovementioned Wall Street firms to help Shein’s listing, which could take place in 2024.

These reports are the latest sign that Shein is resuming its attempt to come public. Founded in 2012, Shein has expanded its presence to over 150 countries and replaced ZARA and H&M in the U.S. market as the benchmark of the new-generation fast-fashion brands, with products sourced entirely from the Chinese supply chain.Shein was reported to consider IPO recent years, even its valuation dropped sharply from its peak , a warning signal reflecting its explosive growth was fading and was overtaken by Temu, an overseas platform launched by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings Inc. in last September.

A funding round of $1 billion in April 2022 brought Shein’s valuation to a peak of $100 billion. The fast fashion retailer accordingly entered into the top three most valuable private companies in the world, behind another TikTok parent ByteDance and the aerospace unicorn SpaceX, according to CB Insights, a global startup database and business analytics platform. The valuation also suggests Shein would be a fast fashion Titanic that overtakes the combination of two European rivals—H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB and Zara’s owner Inditex SA.

However, valuation of Shein and other startups kept dropping since then as wary toward risk assets increased amid uncertain economic outlook and higher interest rates. Shein was in talks with potential investors to raise up to $3 billion and the new fundraising would value the unicorn at $64 billion, shrinking more than a third from its valuation peak in April 2022, the Financial Times reported in January. Reuters later learned Shein was valued at $60 billion after it raised around $2 billion in a new founding round in March.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported Shein is targeting to be valued up to $90 billion through its IPO in U.S., and hasn’t made final decision about the deal including its valuation and timing yet as it is still under consideration. $90 billion is much higher than the current valuation that the market priced in. In the secondary market, stakes that have recently changed hands valued Shein at about $50 billion to $60 billion, Bloomberg’s sources said.  

本文内容来源：钛媒体英文站