Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein is reportedly looking to move its IPO from New York to London, as the United States are asking too many difficult questions about its production processes.
Exploring other options
Shein would like to be included on the New York Stock Exchange, but both American politicians and the antitrust authorities have a lot of critical questions and concerns. These include how the webshop manages to ship so many packages of clothes to the US without paying import duties on them, what the working conditions in production really are, and whether Shein definitely does not source banned cotton from the Xinjiang region.
Last November, Shein still said it would go ahead with its New York IPO and it even moved its headquarters to Singapore to ease political tensions. However, now it seems increasingly unlikely that the fashion web shop will ever get the green light from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg reports.
Although New York remains the preferred location, Shein is now said to be looking to move its planned IPO London and is cautiously exploring that option. Other locations such as Hong Kong or Singapore are also under consideration, anonymous sources say. However, to do so, the company must first seek – and receive – renewed approval from Chinese regulators. Shein is counting on a stock market valuation of around eighty billion euros.
