Good morning. Today we're talking about Shein’s London listing, Monzo’s first profit and Nvidia dethroning Apple.

Big Stories

Shein comes to London

The London Stock Exchange is poised for a potentially landmark initial public offering with Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein in discussions for a listing. If it goes ahead, it could be the biggest listing in UK history with a valuation of £50bn and would mark a major coup for the City which has struggled to attract listings in recent years. Founded in China in 2012, Shein is now based in Singapore and ships to more than 150 countries with 150m users. It has rapidly become one of the world’s largest fashion retailers because of its low prices and high-volume sales. The firm doubled its profits to more than £1.6bn last year, making more than the Swedish fashion group H&M and the UK’s Primark and Next. However, the potential listing comes amid controversy over Shein’s operations. It has faced allegations of labour malpractices, with tough scrutiny from the US Congress stalling the company’s efforts to list in New York.

Monzo’s first profit

British challenger bank Monzo achieved its first annual profit, recording £15.4m pre-tax profit for the year ending March 2024 after recording a £116m loss a year earlier. This milestone, nine years after launching, follows a doubling of revenue to £880m. Monzo has over 9m users and claims to be the UK's seventh-largest bank by customer count. This news reflects a broader trend of fintech firms prioritising profitability over growth. In the last year, Monzo unveiled its first investing product, and raised almost £500m in new funding, boosting its overall valuation to an estimated £3.9bn. On the back of its profitability, Monzo said it is in the early stages of opening an office in Dublin, which it described as a ‘gateway’ to help it expand across Europe.

Nvidia overtakes Apple

AI chip technology leader Nvidia has dethroned Apple as the world's second most valuable company behind Microsoft. Fuelled by a 147% surge in stock price this year, Nvidia's market value now exceeds $3tr. As recently as February, Nvidia was valued at $1trn less than now, but fresh interest was created after it announced a "stock split", which will take place on Friday. Such a move will increase the number of shares available - so more people can invest - and reduce the price per share as a result. The milestone valuation marks a historic first for a chipmaker and underscores the booming demand for AI technology. Nvidia is a younger company than some of its peers having been founded in 1993. It has been developing microchips since its inception and has been adding machine-learning features to its products for years.

Elsewhere...

Rental reprieve: Rents fell in several cities in the first three months of this year according to new data, which will come as welcome news to tenants following years of constant rises.

In the clear: British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has been cleared of fraud charges he faced in the US over the $11bn sale of his software firm to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

New owners: Asda is set for new ownership after Zuber Issa sold his stake in the supermarket group to private equity backer TDR Capital.

Cancelled cards: eBay will no longer accept American Express payments citing the “unacceptably high fees” for card transactions.

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Number of the Day

$170 million

The amount Netflix is being sued for by Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for the stalker in Baby Reindeer.

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