According to sources familiar with the situation quoted by the media, SHEIN is in the process of preparing for its final IPO in the United States and hopes to obtain a valuation of up to $90 billion, which far exceeds the valuation obtained by the cross-border e-commerce giant in recent non-public transactions.
The above-mentioned insider stated that the company has informed potential investors that its listing goal is to obtain a valuation of $80-90 billion. The above person stated that due to recent market fluctuations, the specific listing time is still uncertain.
According to insiders, in non-public transactions, SHEIN's recent valuation has been lower than the $66 billion valuation level obtained from the May round of financing - the company's recent secondary market share exchange valuation is approximately $50 billion to $60 billion.
Although the valuation in non-public transactions may not necessarily reflect the actual valuation of the company, the gap between this number and the latest rumored $90 billion IPO valuation target is clearly significant, which may also make SHEIN's listing plan more complex.
According to the latest market value statistics as of Monday's close, among the companies in the $80 to $90 billion market value category, the highest market value Chinese concept stock company is Meituan (approximately $89.7 billion), and further up, it can already be ranked after BYD (approximately $94.1 billion).
SHEIN announced at the end of last month that in order to further expand the market and increase global influence, the company had acquired the fast fashion brand Misguided under the Frasers Group, a British fashion retail group. Industry insiders speculated at the time that this acquisition may help the company expand its business footprint and increase its valuation for its potential US stock listing.
It is reported that after this merger and acquisition, Misguided's products will be produced by SHEIN and sold simultaneously on Misguided and SHEIN's official websites. The original shareholder, Star Lion Group, will continue to hold all of Misguided's properties and human resources. In addition, Misguided's intellectual property rights will be transferred to Sumwon Studios, a joint venture established by SHEIN and Misguided founder Nitin Pasi. The joint venture will manage and operate the Misguided brand.
SHEIN is developing rapidly
SHEIN is a B2C fast fashion cross-border e-commerce company, mainly engaged in the sales of self branded clothing.
SHEIN's predecessor, Nanjing Dianwei Information Technology Co., Ltd., was established in 2008 and early engaged in cross-border wedding e-commerce; In 2012, SHEINSIDE Transform COM's domain name into cross-border women's clothing and adopt an independent website model; In 2015, SHEINSIDE was renamed as SHEIN and entered the fast lane of development.
In recent years, SHEIN has developed into one of the world's largest unicorn enterprises, deeply rooted in the fast fashion women's clothing track, and its business mainly focuses on markets such as Europe, America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In the "2023 Global Unicorn Enterprise 500 Development Report" released in September this year, SHEIN ranked fourth among the global unicorn enterprise 500 and also ranked among the top three Chinese unicorn enterprises.
In terms of financial condition, SHEIN has achieved profitability for four consecutive years, reaching $700 million in 2022. However, this is a decrease from the $1.1 billion in 2021, as high air freight costs and rising production costs erode profits.
Shein raised $2 billion in a new round of financing in June this year, but its valuation in this round was only $66 billion, a decrease of nearly one-third from $100 billion a year ago. The latest round of financing is still led by old shareholders such as Sequoia and General Atlantic.
In 2022, Shein was once the third most valuable startup in the world, and the valuation of the company in the F-round financing at that time was as high as hundreds of billions of dollars. But since then, with the uncertain global economic outlook and rising interest rates, investors' vigilance towards risky assets has increased, and the company's valuation has plummeted along with other startups and technology companies.
Insiders said that SHEIN's listing plan is still under discussion, and a final decision on the valuation and timing of the IPO has not yet been made.