SHEIN Goes Public in Hong Kong: The Party's Over

After failed attempts in New York and then London, blocked by concerns over supply chain practices and labor exploitation, SHEIN finally pulled off its public listing on 01/09/2026, trading under ticker 00625.

Photo : AFP/Getty Images (2024)

A Listing Three Years in the Making

SHEIN's path to the public markets has been anything but smooth. The company first filed confidentially for a US IPO back in November 2023, only to run into mounting resistance from lawmakers and regulators — it was barred from joining the National Retail Federation, and Congress kept pressing it on data practices, ties to China, and labor conditions in its supply chain.

When the US route stalled, SHEIN pivoted to London in 2025, hoping a Hong Kong filing would help "salvage" the UK listing plan. That didn't work either: Chinese regulators withheld approval over risk disclosures tied to SHEIN's China-based supply chain, effectively blocking London too.

Hong Kong became the fallback. The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the offering on July 10, 2026, and after several delays, the target date slipped from August 28 to September 1 amid what sources described as cooling investor demand : SHEIN finally rang the bell on 01/09/2026.

IPO VALUATION ......................... $26.5B
2022 VALUATION (private) ............. $100B
2023-2024 VALUATION (private) .......... $64B
DISCOUNT vs. 2022 PEAK .................. -73%

The Debut

SHEIN sold roughly 280 million Class B shares at a final price of HK$48.56 — below the top of its HK$47.60-49.50 marketed range, raising about HK$13.60 billion (~$1.74B) in net proceeds. It was the largest new share issuance on the Hong Kong exchange so far in 2026. Shares fell as much as 10% in early trading before recovering slightly to close down 9% on day one.

UBS Group's asset management arm joined as a cornerstone investor — its first-ever stake in SHEIN — agreeing, as cornerstone investors do, to hold its allocation for at least six months rather than flip it immediately.

DAY 1 DROP (intraday low) .............. -10%
DAY 1 CLOSE ............................. -9%
SHARES SOLD ............................ 280M (Class B)
NET PROCEEDS ........................... $1.74B
FINAL PRICE / SHARE .................. HK$48.56
OFFER RANGE ...................... HK$47.60-49.50

Why the Market Shrugged

The muted reception isn't a mystery once you look at the trajectory. Revenue growth has been decelerating hard: 41.1% in 2023, down to 20.7% in 2024, down again to just 8% in 2025 (on $41.8B in net revenue). By Q1 2026, growth had all but stalled at 1.1%, as US tariffs : SHEIN lost its import-duty exemption on small packages in May 2025 hit sales directly. The company swung to a $99 million net loss that quarter, a sharp reversal from a $395 million profit the year before.

REVENUE GROWTH
2023 .................................... 41.1%
2024 .................................... 20.7%
2025 ...................................... 8.0%
Q1 2026 ................................... 1.1%

Q1 2026 NET INCOME ................ -$99M
(vs. +$395M a year earlier)

US REVENUE, 2024-2025 CHANGE ............ -3%
US REVENUE, Q1 CHANGE (YoY) ............ -14%
EUROPE SHARE OF 2025 REVENUE ............ 35%

SHEIN's own prospectus warns that the same tariff pressure squeezing its US business could spread to Europe — no small caveat, given Europe accounted for over a third of 2025 revenue. And this comes against a backdrop of separate reputational damage: a French appeals court ruling earlier this year addressed the government's push to suspend parts of SHEIN's site after illicit products, including childlike sex dolls, were found listed for sale (since removed).

Analysts framed the tepid debut as a timing problem as much as a growth problem. Brendan Ahern of KraneShares told CNBC that near-term sentiment would likely stay guarded until SHEIN's Q2 numbers offer more visibility on its balance sheet. More bluntly, William Ma of GROW Investment Group put it this way: SHEIN "missed the golden time to list."

Where the Money Goes

Technology capabilities ................. 40%
Brand awareness + global presence ....... 40%
CSR + general corporate purposes ........ 20%

Notably absent from that breakdown: anything earmarked specifically for supply chain reform, labor standards, or the sustainability claims SHEIN has increasingly leaned on in its marketing. The use-of-proceeds structure suggests a company doubling down on scale and visibility, not on the practices that have drawn years of scrutiny.

The Fine Print at the Bottom of the Receipt

SHEIN's structural advantage hasn't changed: it still sits at the intersection of China's low-cost textile manufacturing base and a highly sophisticated e-commerce logistics network, reaching an estimated 160 markets worldwide according to CFO Leigh Gui. What's changed is that the market is now pricing that advantage against real headwinds — tariffs, slowing growth, and a valuation that's shed roughly three-quarters of its 2022 peak.

The deeper story here isn't really about one disappointing stock debut. It's that investors are starting to do, financially, what critics of ultra-fast fashion have argued for years on ethical grounds: treat the externalized costs : tariffs, regulatory risk, reputational exposure, as costs that eventually show up on the balance sheet, not just in someone else's supply chain.