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Mubadala-backed Shein courts investors before London IPO

Shein IPO Reuters/Edgar Su
A Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore, where the company now has its headquarters
  • China’s Shein to seek LSE listing
  • Fashion retailer valued at $66bn
  • Mubadala invested in Shein in 2023

Chinese fashion retailer Shein, which is backed by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, is courting European investors before an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

Shein is due to hold informal meetings to answer questions and test the investment appetite of major investors in the coming weeks, before its planned IPO in London, according to a report by Reuters.

The company, now the world’s largest fashion retailer, is working towards launching the float in the current quarter, subject to it getting the approval from the UK markets watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority.

Shein had originally targeted the New York Stock Exchange for its IPO, but switched to London because of regulatory concerns in both the US and China. It moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2022 for similar reasons

Shein has grown rapidly in recent years by offering low prices on clothing to consumers worldwide.

Its financial figures are not publicly available, but it was valued at $66 billion in a fundraising round last year, and analysts at Bernstein in April estimated that its net profit more than doubled last year to $2 billion from $700 million, giving it a profit margin of 4.4 percent of sales.

The fashion retailer raised $2 billion from investors, including the UAE’s Mubadala, in 2023.