Photo: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Luxury e-tailer Mytheresa has successfully acquired the entirety of competing platform Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) from its former owner Richemont in a €555 million cash and no-financial-debt deal.
In exchange for 100% of YNAP, Richemont will receive a 33% equity stake in Mytheresa. A one-year lock-up period after the transaction has officially taken place is also included in the deal, meaning Richemont will not be able to sell any of its Mytheresa shares during that time. Another one-year period will follow, where limited sales may be allowed. Richemont will also be able to nominate a member to the Mytheresa board with a final decision to be made in early 2025. Richemont will also grant a six-year revolving credit of €100 million to assist with YNAP’s general expenses.
As for the future of the businesses involved, “Mytheresa, Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter will offer differentiated but complementary multi-brand luxury edits…the three brands will share a large part of their infrastructure creating synergies and efficiencies while maintaining their different brand identities,” said Michael Kliger, CEO of Mytheresa in a press release.
Though this deal combines two of the largest online luxury fashion e-tailers, the companies will continue to offer their own unique curation of products, with Kliger emphasizing the agreement as a “pure financial deal” on an investor call on Monday, adding that there would be “no operational relationship” between Mytheresa and YNAP.
Mytheresa also plans to separate the off-price division — comprising Yoox and The Outnet — from the luxury division and to discontinue YNAP’s white label division once the online stores it powers migrate to alternative platforms.
This announcement is the latest in Yoox Net-a-Porter’s financial saga, with Richemont originally selling 47.5% of the company to Farfetch for around €1 billion in 2022, then terminating the agreement in late 2023 after Farfetch was bought in an emergency $500 million deal by South Korean retailer Coupang.
Johann Rupert, Chairman of Richemont said in a press release, “We are pleased to have found such a good home for YNAP. As a trusted partner to many of the world’s leading global luxury brands, YNAP is renowned for its pioneering high-end customer services complemented by its distinctive and inspirational editorial voice. Mytheresa is ideally placed to build on YNAP’s assets to further delight customers and brand partners alike across the world by harnessing both companies’ respective strengths.”
Please note: Occasionally, we use affiliate links on our site. In no way does this affect our editorial decision-making.
Source: Fashionista.com
