Shein-ing Us On

Barely a week after we point out Shein as a shining example of squaring away your China IP, before it becomes China's IP. Now they're rumored to be prepping for an IPO worth a record-breaking $47b.

The big numbers don't preclude the usual pre-IPO antics. "No, no IPO planned, let's do another private round." But where there's smoke, there's fire, and where there are private secondary sharks, there is pre-IPO blood.

"Judging by the number of calls we're getting for blocks of Shein all of a sudden, it's hard to imagine that an IPO is not in the offing," says Edward Lehman. "The concern is the valuation, not to mention the potential of another stutter step such as Bytedance's. Traditional private shares investors would deem these issues significant, requiring careful consideration and research. And that's exactly why traditional investors are missing out on these blocks (of available shares). I would call it 'irrational exuberance', but then the markets in general don't seem to be driven by anything traditionally rational."