Jeremy Hunt has held talks with the boss of Shein, the Chinese-founded fast fashion giant, in a bid to persuade the company to commit to what would be one of London’s biggest-ever corporate flotations.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that the chancellor met Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman, this month as part of British regulators’ and government officials’ efforts to convince it to list in the UK.
Insiders confirmed that the two men had held “productive” discussions about a London initial public offering amid signs that its initial target of a New York flotation is faltering.
Sky News revealed Shein’s deliberations over a London listing in December, with Bloomberg News repeating that those considerations were ongoing in a report on Tuesday.
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The meeting between Mr Hunt and Mr Tang underlines the importance that British officials are attaching to the idea of trumping the US in an effort to land the Shein IPO.
One capital markets banker said that if it proceeded, Shein could become the London Stock Exchange’s second-largest IPO in history, behind the 2011 stock market debut of Glencore International, the commodities trading and mining group.
Mr Tang has already met executives from the LSE as well as more junior ministers as part of its IPO preparations.
Shein filed documents for a New York listing last year, but has reportedly grown concerned that its application may be rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have been appointed to work on the deal.
Based in Singapore, Shein has become one of the world’s largest online fashion retailers, although its growth has not been untroubled amid mounting concerns about labour standards.
Last year, Sky News revealed that Shein was in talks to buy the…
