In a transformative move, Richemont has announced the sale of its online luxury clothing and accessories subsidiary, Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP), to MYT Netherlands Parent (Mytheresa) for €555 million (R10.6 billion), with no accompanying debt.
Richemont will also extend a €100m revolving credit facility to YNAP. This sale comes 10 months after a prior attempt to sell YNAP to Farfetch fell through.
As part of the deal, Richemont will gain a 33% equity stake in Mytheresa, signalling a strategic shift towards aligning YNAP with Mytheresa's online luxury platform.
YNAP was originally formed in 2015 when Italian online fashion retailer Yoox acquired Richemont’s Net-A-Porter, which was then promoted as “the world’s biggest luxury fashion store.” The current deal is expected to finalise in the first half of 2025.
The sale generated input on “X”, with for instance, Ahmed Al-Saleh (@afalsaleh_al) commenting: “Including operating losses YNAP has absorbed about €4bn of Richemont cash since its inception, says Bluebell. Hence a discounted sale price, 0.4 times sales or below half of Farfetch’s valuation.”
The Finance Ghost (@FinanceGhost) wrote: “Richemont reckons that Mytheresa is a good home for the mess that is Yoox Net-A-Porter. Based on the Mytheresa share price, they do indeed look like a good cultural fit:”
Miss Tweed Official (@TweedMiss) said: Fashion online retailer Mytheresa today announced that it was acquiring Richemont’s Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP), ending a long-running and painful saga for the Swiss luxury group.”
Richemont’s annual report showed YNAP’s sales fell 14% in the year to March 31, and the group discontinued operations, which comprised its businesses for sale mostly YNAP, amounted to a €1.46bn, and which incorporated a €1.26bn write-down of YNAP’s asset held for sale.
Richemont said yesterday the new deal would see a further write-down of YNAP net assets to €1.3bn, including the cash to be left in YNAP.
“The transaction aims to create a leading, global, multi-brand digital luxury group offering a highly curated and strongly differentiated edit of the most prestigious luxury brands and products to luxury enthusiasts worldwide,” Richemont’s directors, who are led by chairman Johann Rupert, said in a statement yesterday.
"With this transaction, Mytheresa aims to create a pre-eminent, multi-brand, digital, luxury group worldwide. Mytheresa, Yoox Net-A-Porter and MR Porter will offer differentiated, but complementary multi-brand luxury edits based on curation, inspiration and utmost customer service”, Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger said.
Richemont said Mytheresa and YNAP had each earned a strong reputation in the luxury industry for their pioneering roles in “innovation, authoritative editorial voice and curation, as well as high-quality customer service.”
Over the medium term, the aim was to integrate YNAP's Luxury division into Mytheresa, to form one group with three distinct storefronts: Mytheresa, Net-A-Porter and Mr Porter.
The shared infrastructure would also bring greater efficiencies, while maintaining their distinct brand identities.
The separation of the off-price division - comprising Yoox and The Outnet, from the Luxury division was expected to enable a more efficient operating model.
YNAP's white label division would be discontinued once the Richemont Maisons' online stores powered by YNAP, migrated to their own chosen platforms.
Rupert said YNAP was 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," he said.
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