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The China Securities Regulatory Commission posted notice of its approval on Friday, clearing a key regulatory barrier for the fast-fashion retailer and allowing it to proceed with a listing that could launch as early as September, according to Bloomberg. Shein plans to issue up to 341.6 million H shares in the offering on the Hong Kong exchange. The development follows years of preparations during which the Singapore-headquartered company distanced itself from its Chinese origins while maintaining its core supply chain in Guangzhou garment factories.
Xu, who established the business in Nanjing in 2012 under the original name Sheinside, has remained one of the corporate world’s most private leaders even as Shein grew into a global powerhouse. He has granted no interviews, maintains no public online profile and delegates external affairs to figures such as Donald Tang, hired as executive chairman during the earlier New York listing effort, a Reuters report stated. The absence of visible leadership details contributed to political and activist concerns in the United States and Britain that complicated those prior attempts.
Born in 1984 in Zibo, eastern Shandong province, Xu came from a modest background with Chinese media reports noting that his mother worked in a garment factory, offering early exposure to the industry. He originally adopted the English name Chris for Shein’s 2022 sustainability report before changing it to Sky, derived from characters in his full Chinese name Xu Yangtian. An industry source who has known him for years portrayed Xu as patient, modest and pragmatic, remaining hands-on with daily operations despite the company’s scale while pursuing a notable collection of antique coins.
Xu made the call to rebrand from Sheinside to the shorter Shein in 2015, a decision that initially risked its established traffic but ultimately supported broader international appeal, the source told Reuters. He appeared publicly in February at the Guangdong High-Quality Development Conference to discuss supply-chain investments, one of his few departures from seclusion. Shein has repeatedly declined requests for an interview with its founder and does not feature his name or ownership details in the governance section of its corporate website.
Sacra data placed Shein’s 2024 revenue at $38 billion, a 23 percent increase from the previous year, while the company targeted mid-teen sales growth and $2 billion in net profit for 2025 despite tariff pressures. Euromonitor figures showed its US apparel market share edged down from 1.8 percent in 2024 to 1.7 percent in 2025 as trade measures and de minimis rule changes weighed on cross-border shipments. The performance underscores Shein’s resilience in a competitive field that also includes Temu, against which Xu has long preferred to compete without heavy external financing, according to sources close to the founder.
The Hong Kong IPO represents what Reuters characterised as the secretive founder Sky Xu’s biggest public test with the Hong Kong IPO, coming after the company relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2022 to reduce perceived China exposure. Shein has pledged greater transparency on governance and operations ahead of the listing. Xu co-founded the firm alongside Maggie Gu, Molly Miao and Tony Ren, who hold general manager, chief marketing officer and chief supply chain officer roles respectively.
