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BEIJING, July 7 (TiPost)— China-based online fast fashion behemoth Shein seems closer on the public market.

Credit：Visual China

Shein is working with at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and other investment banks, and has been discussing with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq about its possible initial public offering (IPO), a Reuters report quoted people with knowledge of the matter. Shein has reportedly not finalized timeline of IPO and the deal may not take place in the near future. The report conflicted with Axios’ news last month, which said the company has not hired any investment bank or bookrunner, and was not interviewing any them. Axios’ source revealed timing of listing remained uncertain while Shein’s goal is still to go public and is monitoring the market closely.

Another Reuters report last week said Shein has confidentially submitted its IPO registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), choosing a popular way for private companies with less than $1 billion in revenue to pursue an IPO. A confidential filling allows a company to privately file a Form S-1 registration statement for an IPO with the SEC for review, delaying the public filing until much closer to the actual IPO date.The company can take advantage of the period of secrecy to withhold sensitive information from competitors, or even to withdraw a registrations statement without alerting the public. Shein later that week denied the report. Its spokeperson called it “rumors”, without elaborating.

Founded in 2012, Shein has expanded its presence to over 150 countries and replaced ZARA and H&M in the U.S. market as the benchmark of the new-generation fast-fashion brands, with products sourced entirely from the Chinese supply chain. Shein was reported to consider IPO recent years, even its valuation dropped sharply from its peak last year, a warning signal reflecting its explosive growth was fading and was overtaken by Temu, an overseas platform launched by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings Inc. in last September. Spending on Temu was 20% higher than Shein in the US in May, according to Bloomberg Second Measure, which analyzes billions of credit and debit card transactions.

Shein was valued at $100 billion when it completed a funding round between $1 billion and US$2 billion, Bloomberg reported in April, 2022. The post money valuation enables the fast fashion retailer to enter into the top three most valuable private companies in the world, behind another Chinese firm ByteDance, parent of TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin, and SpaceX, the aerospace unicorn founded by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, according to CB Insights, a global startup database and business analytics platform. The valuation also suggests Shein would be a fast fashion Titanic that overtakes the combination of two European rivals—H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB and Zara’s owner Inditex SA.

Shein was in talks with potential investors to raise up to $3 billion and the new fundraising would value the unicorn at $64 billion, shrinking more than a third from its valuation peak in April 2022, the Financial Times reported in January. Reuters later learned Shein was valued at $60 million after it raised around $2 billion in a new founding round in March.

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