SHEIN, the Chinese fast-fashion giant, is set to file a confidential draft prospectus for a long-awaited Hong Kong listing, three individuals with knowledge of the situation have said. The filing, potentially made this week or by Monday, marks an unusual departure from Hong Kong’s conventional IPO process, in which listings are usually coupled with public disclosure.
If approved, SHEIN’s low-key strategy would involve the Hong Kong stock market giving a waiver from its customary listing rules—rare action for one of the world’s most highly-watched IPO prospects, and possibly the city’s biggest initial public offering of the year.
By making a confidential filing, SHEIN will be able to maintain its financials and business dealings out of public sight while Hong Kong and mainland Chinese regulators review its application and voice initial concerns behind closed doors. The system is intended to provide issuers more flexibility and ease market pressure while being reviewed by regulators.
The secret filing is amid SHEIN’s ride through the aftershock of rising Sino-US trade tensions. The fast fashion giant has been struggling in its biggest market, the United States, in the wake of the cancellation of duty-free e-commerce privileges and increased tariffs on Chinese imports during the administration of President Donald Trump.
Once valued at US $ 66 billion in a 2023 funding round—down from a year earlier—SHEIN’s final IPO valuation is expected to hinge heavily on how these tariff changes affect its core business, according to sources.
The step is SHEIN’s third try at listing, following over 18 months since it initially filed for an IPO in the US in late 2023. SHEIN, which delivers affordable clothing pieces to customers in about 150 countries, has been seeking other paths to listing in the face of regulatory obstacles and geopolitics tensions.
In contrast to Hong Kong, where public IPO filings are the default—witnessed by behemoths like Xiaomi and Meituan—confidential filings are a normal part of the US landscape. The rules of Hong Kong do permit such filings in exceptional circumstances, especially for secondary listings or with certain exemptions for spin-offs of foreign-listed parent companies.
