Shein starts the day lower than IPO price

Shares in fast-fashion online retail giant Shein lost around 10% after it began trading on Hong Kong's stock market Tuesday, after a long delay in the company's plans to list its shares publicly.

Shein raised about $1.7 billion, priced at HK$48.56 ($6.19) a share, in its initial public offering in Hong Kong in one of the city's biggest new share sales this year. But in early trading, the shares fell to around HK$44.

Shein's appeal to customers has been built on ultra-fast, affordable fashion, delivered from China to the West in just days. The end of "de minimis" tariff exemptions in the U.S. and the European Union has raised duties for low value parcels from China, including Shein's products, as well higher logistics costs caused in part by the war in Iran, have squeezed the company's low-price business model and profitability.

Tariff costs have helped force Shein to raise prices, "cutting into its main advantage," said Jacob Cooke, CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies.

Shein recorded a $99 million loss in the first three months of this year, compared with a $395 million profit in the same period a year earlier.

Earlier, Shein, pronounced "she-in," explored listing its shares in New York and London. It moved its headquarters from China to Singapore around 2021. But increasingly strict scrutiny by Beijing as well as from regulators in the U.S. and Europe led it to embrace its Chinese roots and switch to a listing in Hong Kong.