The Swiss luxury goods group Compagnie Financière Richemont SA (Richemont) finally has to look for a new solution for its e-commerce division Yoox Net-A-Porter Group (Ynap).
On Monday, the company canceled the long-agreed sale of its Ynap majority stake to financially troubled British online fashion retailer Farfetch Limited and businessman Mohamed Alabbar’s investment company. All other planned joint projects with Farfetch were also canceled. For example, it was planned that Richemont’s luxury brands would in future convert their online business to the Platform Solutions IT system operated by Farfetch.
The background to the decision was a recently published takeover plan for Farfetch. The e-commerce group Coupang Inc. announced on Monday afternoon that it wanted to acquire Farfetch’s business activities and assets together with the financial investor Greenoaks Capital Partners.
Richemont is now considering “alternative options” for Ynap
Richemont also says it no longer expects Farfetch to repay a convertible bond issued in November 2020, in which the Swiss group invested $300 million. The investment still had a book value of 219 million US dollars (200 million euros) at the end of November, explained Richemont.
In view of the collapsed transaction, which had already been agreed in the summer of 2022, Richemont announced that it would now examine “alternative options” in order to find the best possible solution for Ynap “under new management”.