Goldman Sachs bought around $220m of Shein shares in September as part of efforts to support the company’s stock after its Hong Kong listing.

The bank acquired almost 42m shares while acting as stabilisation manager for Shein’s IPO, according to the Financial Times.

The purchases were made at prices between HK$35.90 and Shein’s HK$48.56 offer price and represented around 13 per cent of the shares sold in the float.

Goldman’s role meant it could buy stock in the market after the listing if the share price fell below the offer price.

Filings show 41.99m shares had been lent to the stabilisation manager under a stock borrowing agreement before Shein began trading on 1 September.

Shein was valued at around $26.5bn at the time of the listing, well below the near-$100bn valuation it reached in private markets in 2022.

Its shares have since fallen sharply, dropping around 38 per cent from the IPO price and reducing its market value to roughly $16bn.

The Financial Times estimated the stabilisation trades could have generated around $34m for the underwriting syndicate because the shares were bought back below the IPO price.

Shein’s shares came under further pressure last week after it reported a 67 per cent fall in quarterly profit to $228m.

Its profit margin fell to 2.1 per cent from 6.2 per cent a year earlier, with the retailer hit by higher freight costs and changes to import rules in the US and Europe.

Shein has raised prices in the US after the removal of duty-free treatment for low-value parcels, while the EU introduced a €3 charge on similar shipments in July.

The retailer raised around $1.7bn through its Hong Kong IPO after previous attempts to list in New York and London failed to progress.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter