The former chancellor is among those revealed by Shein as he develops plans to enter London worth more than £50bn, Sky News learns.
Sajid Javid, the former chancellor of the exchequer, has been approached to take on a role at Shein, the online fashion giant that has been drawing up plans for London’s biggest stock market for years.
Sky News has learned that Mr Javid is among a number of senior City officials who have held talks with Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman, in recent weeks.
City sources said that if Mr Javid’s appointment were to go ahead, he could either become a Shein board member or become an adviser to the Chinese-founded company.
They added that Baroness Fairhead, a former chair of the BBC Trust, was also on a shortlist drawn up by headhunters who advise Shein.
One person close to the company said the identity of those approached reflected both the seriousness with which Shein approached the issue of corporate governance and the extent of its focus on the London listing.
After leaving the government, Mr Javid took a role at investment firm Centricus, which unsuccessfully tried to structure a bid for Chelsea Football Club in 2022.
His spokesman, who insisted Mr Javid would stand for re-election in his Bromsgrove seat a week before publicly announcing otherwise, did not respond to Sky News’ request for comment.
In recent weeks, several reports have repeated Sky News’ revelation that Shein had turned his attention to a London flotation due to difficulties securing approval from US regulators.
An initial public offering would likely value Shein at around £50 billion or more.
The company is also believed to have considered Paris as a possible listing location.
Earlier this year Chancellor Jeremy Hunt held talks with Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman, to persuade the company to commit to what would be one of London’s biggest corporate transactions.
The meeting between Mr Hunt and Mr Tang highlighted the importance British officials attach to the idea of ​​trumping the US in the bid to achieve the Shein IPO.
If it goes ahead, Shein could become the London Stock Exchange’s second-biggest IPO in history, following the 2011 debut of commodities trading and mining group Glencore International.
Mr Tang also met with executives from the LSE as well as junior ministers in the run-up to the IPO.
Shein filed documents for a listing in New York last year, but began to worry that his application might be rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are advising on the deal.
Singapore-based Shein has become one of the world’s largest online fashion retailers, although its growth has not been without challenges due to growing concerns about labor standards.
Last year, Sky News revealed that Shein was in talks to buy British fashion label Missguided from Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
While the deal itself was only worth a modest sum, retail analysts said it could pave the way for Shein to build a more meaningful profile in the UK, potentially through a wider partnership with Frasers.
Founded in China in 2012, Shein was worth more than $100 billion last year, at the time worth more than H&M and Zara’s parent company, Inditex, combined.
The company’s valuation was reduced to $66 billion in a share sale last year.
Shein operates in more than 150 countries.
It also struck a deal with SPARC Group, a joint venture between owner Ted Baker ABG and US mall operator Simon Property Group.
As part of the deal, SPARC fashion brand Forever 21 gained distribution on the Shein platform, which boasts 150 million users worldwide.
Shein acquired a one-third stake in SPARC Group, while SPARC Group also acquired an undisclosed minority stake in Shein.
The LSE’s efforts to court Shein come during a challenging period for the City as a listing venue for major multinationals, with ARM Holdings, the British chip designer, opting to float in New York rather than London.
Other companies, such as gambling operator Flutter Entertainment and pharmaceutical company Indivior, plan to move their IPOs to the US, citing higher valuations and more liquid markets.
However, in recent weeks London has received potential IPOs from Raspberry Pi, a PC maker, and AOTI, a medical technology provider.
Mr Hunt hosted a summit in Dorneywood last week of UK-listed technology companies.
Shein declined to comment.