Shein Shares Slide on Hong Kong Market Debut Amid Scrutiny

Shares in the fast-fashion brand Shein slumped by as much as 10% on Tuesday as the China-founded company made its trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The company priced its shares at HK$48.56 each, valuing the business at just over $26 billion. Minutes after the flotation, which raised HK$13.6 billion ($1.7 billion), the stock fell to as low as HK$43.72 before recovering most of its early losses. Shein's shares closed at HK$48.50, down just 0.12% from its opening price. The company was once estimated to be worth nearly $100 billion in 2022, but its value has dropped by one-fourth to an IPO valuation of $26.5 billion.

Shein reported a $99 million loss in its first quarter. Chief financial officer Leigh Gui stated that the company's model of selling large numbers of small orders with rapid payment options now reaches about 160 markets worldwide. Shein has more than 273 million active customers who placed over a billion orders in the year to the end of March 2026.

Shein's attempts to list in the UK and US were reportedly scuppered by supply chain concerns and criticism of its environmental impact and alleged forced labor. The plunge in its value has also been driven by regulatory changes worldwide that threaten its business model of shipping goods in small packages out of China to take advantage of tax breaks on low-value imported goods.

France began imposing penalties on the extreme end of fast fashion on Tuesday to curb sales of cheap clothing from e-commerce sites like Shein and Temu. These penalties, part of a fast-fashion law passed in June, aim to address environmental concerns from overproduction and range from 0.25 euros to 12 euros per item, capped at 50% of the product's pre-tax sales price. China's commerce ministry described the French law as discriminatory and a trade barrier.