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De Nieuwe Beurskoers (DNBK) and the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) are calling on the Dutch financial sector to ignore the listing of SHEIN.
Shein is currently on a roadshow through Europe. The Chinese online budget giant for clothing and accessories wants to persuade investors to list on the London Stock Exchange. A listing would give the company much more money and, therefore, the opportunity for more growth. The roadshow will undoubtedly also end up in Amsterdam. Let the message be crystal clear: nobody should want this.
A listing also holds up a mirror to us – what kind of companies do we want to support as a society? Let us not forget that a large part of the money that pension funds and insurers invest via the stock exchange is social money. A strict check by investors on the social value of an investment is therefore logical: investing with social money should not be at the expense of society.
Shein is socially disastrous. Shein specializes in offering poor-quality products at extremely low prices. The company seems quite successful with this strategy, especially considering its estimated profit of two billion dollars in 2023.
The social costs are many times higher. Shein’s products contain chemical and carcinogenic substances, and partly due to their poor quality, they are not easy to recycle. The products are also produced under miserable conditions, with previous allegations of forced labor and, according to the company, also child labor. All costs and misery must be borne by society because they cannot be found on Shein’s balance sheet.
Not convinced yet? Then, consider upcoming EU legislation restricting the production of ecologically harmful products. With its current strategy, the company is acting outside this framework, and in addition to expensive legal cases, risks considerable damage to its image. That investors do not shy away from taking action against socially disastrous companies was already clear in the recently imposed blockade against the Brazilian meat giant JBS.
If Shein receives a warm welcome on the London Stock Exchange, the Dutch financial sector will probably contribute considerably to that. If not through direct purchase of shares, then certainly through passive investments to which many insurers, pension funds or asset managers have subscribed. Banks may also offer shares on their investment platforms.
The VBDO and De Nieuwe Beurskoers, the association of Christian investors, believe it is essential that the financial sector in the Netherlands deals consciously and responsibly with the resources entrusted to it. Shein is a clear example of a company that has absolutely no place in a socially responsible financial sector. Every investor who invests our social money must first realize which studs are being kept from the clothes before he or she invests even a cent in this company.
This article previously appeared in Het Nederlands Dagblad (in Dutch).
