Shein shares fall in long-awaited stock market debut — SkimNews
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- Shein shares dropped as much as 10% in early Hong Kong trading before easing to about 3.5% lower at ~HK$47, after pricing Monday at HK$48.56 and raising HK$13.6bn ($1.7bn) — Hong Kong's largest new share sale so far this year.
- The listing valued Shein at $26.3bn, roughly a quarter of its ~$100bn earlier estimated worth, against a backdrop of 273 million active customers placing more than 1 billion orders in the year to end-March 2026 across 160 markets.
- Shein's Hong Kong debut followed failed US listings over forced-labor objections from lawmakers and a rejected London attempt; Chinese authorities approved the Hong Kong move in July 2025, with one analyst calling it the "only realistic path" for Chinese companies shut out of Western exchanges.
- Shein reported a $99m quarterly loss in July and faces the loss of the US de minimis import-duty exemption, a €3 EU tax on low-value parcels, and Iran-war-driven demand and logistics damage cited by the company itself.
- Founder Xu Yangtian, long publicity-shy, made a rare February stage appearance at a Guangdong business conference, pledging investment in China's garment industry and calling Beijing's "nourishment" "inseparable" from Shein's success.
- Rival pressure is mounting: Temu-owner PDD reported lower-than-expected August revenue, while analysts at Saxo and GlobalData said regulatory scrutiny, tariff exposure, and intensifying competition leave investors unconvinced Shein can engineer a valuation comeback.
Why it matters: Shein's $26.3bn IPO price — roughly a quarter of its earlier $100bn peak — crystallizes what a Saxo strategist called "genuine deterioration": the loss of the US de minimis exemption, EU's €3 low-value import tax, and Iran-war logistics damage have structurally compressed the ultra-cheap China-to-doorstep model that drove 1 billion orders from 273 million customers, and the 3.5–10% first-day slide shows public-market investors aren't yet convinced Shein's supply chain can offset those costs.
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