Fast fashion giant Shein has seen its shares slide after finally launching its stock market debut at a fraction of previous valuations of the company.
Shares in the business, known for selling extremely cheap clothes, fell by as much as 10% in early trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
However, they recovered some ground during the session to remain around 4% lower, at 46.36 Hong Kong dollars (£4.37).
It had started the initial public offering (IPO) at a price of 48.56 Hong Kong dollars (£4.58), with a market value above 26 billion US dollars (£19.4 billion).
This represents a significant slump in value of the business in recent years, having reportedly been worth more than 100 billion US dollars (£73.3 billion) at its peak after a private fundraising in 2022.
It was said to have been initially aiming for a 30 billion US dollar (£22 billion) valuation.
The drop in the retail firm’s value has come off the back of pressure from global tax changes and weak consumer sentiment.
The Singapore-based online firm had been planning to float since 2023 and previous attempts to list in New York and London failed after political and regulatory scrutiny.
Shein recently disclosed it slumped to a 99 million US dollar (£73 million) bottom line loss in the first quarter of 2026 and saw sales hit by US President Donald Trump’s move to scrap an import duty exemption on small packages.
In May last year, the US removed a so-called “de minimis” tariff exemption on small packages, which Shein had previously used to ship garments from China directly to customers.
Earlier this month, the European Union also made the same move by imposing a three euro (£2.56) duty on small parcels imported from outside the trading bloc.
The UK is also planning to close the small parcels loophole, but not until October 2028.
Shein said in the trading update it was looking at raising prices across the US and Europe to offset the sales impact.
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