Shein confidentially files for U.S. IPO

Shein has confidentially filed to go public in the U.S. as the Chinese-founded fast-fashion juggernaut looks to expand its global reach with a long-rumored initial public offering. 

The retailer was last valued at $66 billion and could be ready to start trading on the public markets as soon as 2024, people familiar with the matter said Monday.

• Shein is headquartered in Singapore and was founded in Nanjing, China in 2008. 
• In 2022, Shein was the world's largest fashion retailer with a value of $100 billion — more than fast-fashion predecessors H&M and Zara combined. 
• Shein uses on-demand manufacturing to reduce inventory waste and deliver affordable products. 
• It has been criticized for its labor practices and the role of fast fashion in pollution. 
• Shein promotes clothes under $30, $20 or even $5, mostly made in China and shipped directly to shoppers.
  
• https://us.shein.com/?ref=www&rep=dir&ret=us
  

Shein has faced a number of controversies, including: 

• Design theft: Artists have filed a racketeering lawsuit accusing Shein of stealing designs.
• Import tax laws: A congressional report says Shein abuses a loophole in import tax laws.
• Forced labor: Lawmakers have called for an investigation into alleged use of forced labor  in Xinjiang.

A confidential filing is common, as it allows companies to communicate with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and make any necessary adjustments to their filings in private. Over the next few months, Shein will likely make tweaks to its paperwork and answer numerous questions from the agency. The filing will be made public once the company is ready to move forward with its IPO. At that point, those communications with the SEC and any adjustments to its paperwork will be released as well.

Shein has been on a meteoric rise over the past few years after it won over consumers across the globe with its fashion-forward designs, endless assortment and dirt-cheap prices. But Shein has faced a series of challenges along the way and faced accusations of using forced labor in its supply chain, violating labor laws, harming the environment and stealing designs from independent artists.

The company is currently under investigation by the newly formed House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and has faced scrutiny over its ties to Beijing. Numerous lawmakers, including 16 Republican attorneys general, have called on the SEC to ensure Shein isn’t using forced labor in its supply chain before it’s allowed to start trading in the U.S.

Reddit files confidentially for IPO

Reddit, the social-media platform that is home to WallStreetBets and other forums, confidentially has filed for an initial public offering.

• The company, founded in San Francisco in 2005, as of August had a valuation of about $10 billion.
• Along with Fidelity, Reddit’s investors include venture-capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, and Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd.
• Reddit said that it had more than 52 million daily active users as of January, spanning 100,000-plus online communities. Its most notorious community is 10.8 million user-strong WallStreetBets, which was at the heart of a trading frenzy earlier this year in stocks such as GameStop (ticker: GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC).

In recent years, Reddit has been taking steps to grow by investing in areas such as video and consumer products, as well as by moving into international markets. But like many other social-media companies, it’s also been plagued with content-moderation challenges, including how to stop the spread of misinformation and calls for violence.

As of August, Reddit said it had a valuation of about $10 billion after raising more than $400 million from Fidelity Investments Inc. In February, the social-media company said it had raised about $500 million at a $6.5 billion valuation.

Reddit has been looking to build on the attention it gained when at the start of the year its WallStreetBets forum became a hot spot for the individual investors who rallied around GameStop Corp. and other stocks.

The episode brought in millions of new users, Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman said in its wake, as well as new advertisers, the source of the bulk of the company’s revenue. He has also said that with an IPO, he would want to make Reddit’s share offering more accessible to individual investors.

San Francisco-based Reddit, founded in 2005, is known for its message boards on an array of topics, plus its “ask me anything” digital town halls with celebrities, politicians and subject-matter experts. The company was sold to Condé Nast in 2006, and the magazine publisher’s parent, Advance Publications Inc., spun Reddit off in 2011 and remains a shareholder.

Over time, Reddit has grown to outpace rivals such as Digg to become a haven for niche communities to gather and a go-to source of news. Reddit had more than 50 million daily users as of January, according to its website. The company aired its first Super Bowl ad the following month and in August it said it reached $100 million in advertising revenue in a quarter for the first time, almost triple the prior-year figure but that it remained unprofitable.

Airbnb (AIRB) confidentially files for IPO

Bloomberg reports that Airbnb (AIRB) has confidentially filed paperwork with the SEC for an initial public offering.

The price range and number of shares will be determined at a later date.

Airbnb was valued at $18B during an April fundraising round, slashed from the prior $31B value due to the pandemic's impact on the travel industry.

Last week, Bloomberg sources said Airbnb's Q2 revenue dropped at least 67% Y/Y. Bookings were down 30% Y/Y in June, a large improvement on May's 70% decline.

Pinterest files confidentially to go public

Pinterest, which launched in 2010, generates revenue from ads scattered across its site. Revenue exceeded $700 million in 2018, up 50% from the prior year.

Visual search engine Pinterest  has joined a long list of high-flying technology companies planning to go public in 2019. The business has confidentially submitted paperwork to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering slated for later this year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Pinterest declined to comment.

Founded in 2008 by Ben Silbermann, earlier reports indicated the company was planning to debut on the stock market in April. In late January, Pinterest took its first official step toward a 2019 IPO, hiring Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as lead underwriters for its offering.

The company garnered a $12.3 billion valuation in 2017 with a $150 million financing.

Touting 250 million monthly active users, Pinterest has raised nearly $1.5 billion in venture capital funding from key stakeholders Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, Fidelity and SV Angel. The business brought in some $700 million in ad revenue in 2018, per reports, a 50 percent increase year-over-year.

Pinterest employs 1,600 people across 13 cities, including Chicago, London, Paris, São Paulo, Berlin and Tokyo. The company says half its users live outside the U.S.

Pinterest will likely follow Lyft,  Uber and Slack to the public markets, which have all filed confidential paperwork for IPOs or, in Slack’s case, a reported direct listing, expected in the coming months.