According to sources, China-based online retailer Shein is in talks with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq about a U.S. initial public offering.

Six sources say, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase are helping Shein prepare for its IPO.

One source claimed the apparel store, under scrutiny from U.S. politicians for its labor abuses, may not proceed with an IPO.

Shein might become the most lucrative China-founded US IPO since ride-hailing giant Didi Global’s (92Sy. M.U.) $68 billion launch in 2021. A year later, Beijing’s antitrust and data security crackdown on Chinese I.T. firms led to Didi’s NYSE delisting.

Two sources stated Nasdaq and NYSE had contacted Shein to persuade it to list on their exchanges.

Singapore-based Shein officials declined to comment on IPO ambitions, investment banks, and exchange talks. JPMorgan did not immediately reply to demands for comment, while Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, and NYSE declined.

According to Reuters, Shein confidentially registered its IPO with the SEC last week. Shein just responded, “denies these rumors” when the report was published. Three sources told Reuters that the SEC had not received an IPO filing.

Two sources claimed Shein is drafting the IPO file. Shein, launched in China in 2012, has been considering a U.S. IPO for at least three years. Still, it was deterred by tensions between Beijing and Washington, U.S. scrutiny of Chinese accounting practices, and market volatility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

A bipartisan coalition of two dozen U.S. representatives oppose Shein’s IPO and want an independent audit to prove the company does not use Uyghur-forced labor before listing shares.

Shein says it follows ethical sourcing criteria and denies charges that it ships from China’s Xinjiang province, where the Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority, are compelled to labor to produce cotton. This is why the U.S. forbids Xinjiang exports.
E-commerce shops like Shein exploit the “de minimis” tariff exemption to ship goods from China to the U.S. U.S. Senators want to limit it.

In March, Shein raised $2 billion privately. Reuters stated that General Atlantic, Mubadala, Tiger Global, and Sequoia Capital China invested.

Shein’s founder, Chris Xu, moved the company’s headquarters to Singapore from Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, over a year ago to avoid China’s strict new offshore listing criteria.