The Swiss luxury goods group Compagnie Financière Richemont SA (Richemont) has taken an important step forward in the long-planned sale of its majority stake in the online fashion retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter Group (Ynap).
On Monday, the group announced that the European Commission had approved the transaction, which had already been agreed in the summer of last year. Accordingly, Richemont is allowed to sell a share package of 47.5 percent of YNAP shares to the British e-commerce specialist Farfetch Ltd. relinquish. In return, the group will receive shares from Farfetch.
At the same time, Richemont was allowed to sell 3.2 percent of YNAP shares to Dubai-based businessman Mohamed Alabbar’s investment company Symphony Global. The Swiss group took over the majority of YNAP in 2018, but has been trying to sell a significant portion of its shares since 2021.
After the planned sale of shares in Farfetch, Richemont wants to further deepen its partnership with the British company. The plan is for YNAP and the luxury brands belonging to Richemont to use the Farfetch Platform Solutions e-commerce service package in the future. In addition, most Richemont labels are set to open their own concession areas on Farfetch’s digital marketplace.
The completion of the transaction is now dependent on the fulfillment of further conditions that Richemont and Farfetch are currently working on, it said in a statement. Further news on the progress of the approval process will be published “in due course”.