Shein, the fast-expanding online fast-fashion player, will reportedly revive plans to list in New York this year as its founder contemplates changing citizenship to overcome barriers for offshore initial public offerings (IPOs) in China.
The IPO would be the first significant equity deal by a Chinese company in the US since regulators clamped down on overseas listings last July.
It is not known how much the company hopes to raise, according to a report by Reuters.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and JPMorgan have been hired as bookmakers for the IPO.
A Shein spokesperson denied the claims.
The online fashion group began preparing for an American IPO roughly two years ago but stopped because of rising US-China tensions, the report claimed, citing two unnamed sources.
The company’s founder Chris Xu is contemplating changing his citizenship to Singaporean to bypass China’s stern rules on overseas listings and make the procedure much easier, they said.
New rules by China’s securities regulator are to make US listings a lengthier and more complicated process.
The rival to ASOS and Boohoo delivers to 150 countries and territories from its several global warehouses, it said on its website, with the US being its biggest market.
The company, whose investors include Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital, and Tiger Global, received US$15.7bn in revenue in 2021 as it capitalised on the pandemic shifting global consumption to online, the sources said.
It was valued at around US$50bn in early 2021, they added.