BEIJING, April 6 (TMTPOST)— China-based online fast fashion giant Shein ruled out plan of initial public offering (IPO) again as rumors about its funding and listing swirl.
Source: Visual China
Shein has discussed with potential investors about a new fundraising of US$10 billion, which may bring its valuation to about US$100 billion, Bloomberg cited people with knowledge of the matter last Sunday. The retailer was valued at US$100 billion when it completed a funding round between US$1 billion and US$2 billion last week, backed by private-equity firm General Atlantic and existing investors including Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital China, the Wall Street Journal learned earlier this week.
The US$100 billion post money valuation enables Shein 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.
PitchBook Data showed Shein was valued at roughly $15 billion in 2020. The company dismissed reports in last May about the potential IPO plan and said it had a several-billion-dollar valuation. It declined to comment on the recent report about its recent funding and valuation, according to 36Kr on Wednesday. As to whether the funding means reopen of IPO, Shein told the Chinese tech news media outlet that it didn’t have any IPO plans, just as it previous statement said.
Besides the abovementioned investors including General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management and Sequoia China, there was one more major investment group which has interests in leading the funding round and inputting US$7 billion, 36Kr learned from several independent sources. And the US$100 billion valuation was said not to be definite, since the deal has not concluded yet and the final valuation could be different.
