The £50bn stock market deal mired in controversy

After many months in which the narrative has been dominated by the London Stock Exchange's best companies heading to Wall Street in search of new investors and higher ratings, the City appears to have lured a bright new bauble.

- JAMES MOORE

Fast fashion giant Shein, founded in China but now headquartered in Singapore, is expected to confirm plans to sell shares in the business on the LSE within days, in what will be the City’s biggest-ever initial public offering (IPO) at more than £50bn.

This, we are told, is a coup for the nation’s ailing financial centre. Britain’s politicians certainly see it that way – chancellor Jeremy Hunt met with Shein’s executive chair Donald Tang to make London’s case, while Labour has also been making positive noises about the prospect of the company making the capital its new home.

However, the political and financial lovebombing of the company has done nothing to obscure an uncomfortable fact: the LSE has only landed this white whale because New York turned up its nose. Shein is one of those companies to which the word “controversial” is inevitably applied, not only because it operates in a controversial industry but also because of how it operates in that industry.