HONG KONG, July 17 (Reuters) – Shein has won approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange listing committee for an IPO, three people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday, bringing the fast-fashion retailer closer to its much-awaited stock market debut in the Asian financial hub.
The IPO would be one of Hong Kong’s most closely watched listings in years and a major test of investor appetite for large consumer deals, after Shein’s earlier efforts to list in New York and London stalled amid regulatory scrutiny.
Shein aims to publish the first listing filing available to the public in the week of July 27, according to two of the people.
The retailer could launch the IPO as soon as late August, one of the people and a fourth source said, adding that the timetable and offering details are not finalised and could change depending on market conditions.
The firm has begun arranging marketing meetings with investors, three of the people said.
The sources declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Hong Kong stock exchange declined to comment. Spokesperson for Shein did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters on the hearing process outcome.
The Hong Kong exchange’s listing committee hearing on the Shein IPO was scheduled for Thursday, Reuters reported on Monday, with the company required to answer questions about its operations and finances.
Once a company has secured the nod from the exchange listing committee after the hearing, it can then proceed with investor roadshows and book-building for the IPO, according to local market rules.
Shein is seeking a valuation of $40 billion to $50 billion in its Hong Kong listing. That’s far less than the $100 billion valuation in a funding round in 2022, according to one of the sources, when it first started pursuing a New York listing.
New fees on e-commerce parcels in Europe weigh on sales growth and profits at the retailer, which earned global revenue of more than $40 billion last year and made close to $2 billion in net profit, sources told Reuters earlier this week.
(Reporting by Kane Wu and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore and Helen Reid in London; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kevin Buckland)
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