Online fashion retailer Shein has reportedly filed to go public in the United States, according to several news sources.
While the filing is confidential, the lead underwriters are rumoured to be Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
Shein was first founded in China in 2012 and has since become a major player in the online fast fashion space. In mid 2023 it was valued at around US$66 billion in a funding round, although Bloomberg has reported it's eyeing a US$90 billion listing.
Shein's IPO will be a major test for the market as it follows several other major listings in recent months that fell short of the mark, including the Arm and Birkinstock IPOs.
Chinese shares listed in the US have also weakened in the last year thanks to more stringent Chinese regulation paired with a Chinese economic slowdown.
You can't easily buy shares in Shein because it not yet a publicly listed company.
If Shein does move forward with an IPO, shares will be available to some investors in a limited capacity prior to listing on the stock exchange.
IPO stock is typically only available to wholesale (high net-worth) or institutional investors with access to the right brokers. However, in some cases, IPO stock is made available to retail investors through a limited number of online brokers.
If you're a retail investor, you can reach out to your broker to find out whether you can get direct access to pre-listed IPO stock. Typically your broker will need to have some kind of relationship with the underwriters - in this case they are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
If Shein does list on a US stock exchange, you'll be able to buy shares through a trading platform that has access to US stocks.
Follow the steps below:
The whole process can take as little as 15 minutes.
You only need to look at the performance of other recent big name IPOs to see the risks associated with buying newly listed stock.
A month after British semi-conductor firm Arm listed in September 2023, its shares had fallen as much as 25%. Meanwhile Birkenstock shares fell 11% on the first day of its listing.
A company's IPO is typically surrounded by plenty of hype. Even valuators can get caught up - pricing a company as greater than its worth depending on how much buzz there is in investing circles.
This can make it difficult to discern the true value of the company. That being said, if you believe in the growth prospects of the company over the long-term, IPOs can also be a good opportunity to get in at a discount – especially if you can buy pre-listed IPO stock.
We currently don't have that product, but here are others to consider:
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