Dive Brief:
- Richemont will sell Yoox Net-A-Porter to MYT Netherlands Parent B.V., the parent company of Mytheresa, for 555 million euros, or about $610 million at current exchange, according to a press release Monday.
- The deal will also give Richemont a 33% equity stake in Mytheresa, an e-commerce luxury business. Richemont will provide 100 million euros in revolving credit facility to YNAP for a six-year period.
- The transaction is expected to close in the first half of the 2025 calendar year pending “customary conditions, including the receipt of antitrust approvals,” per the release.
Dive Insight:
Richemont initially was set to sell its YNAP business to Farfetch. The deal was announced in 2022 and received antitrust clearance from the European Commission in October 2023.
Those plans were dashed, however, when Farfetch was sold to Coupang in December 2023. Richemont began looking for other YNAP buyers following that deal.
In Monday’s release, Michael Kliger, CEO of Mytheresa, said the transaction aims to create a global digital luxury group and share infrastructure, including technology. The Mytheresa, Net-A-Porter and Mr Porter businesses will each offer differentiated collections.
“The three brands will share a large part of their infrastructure creating synergies and efficiencies while maintaining their different brand identities,” Kliger said. “The off-price business will benefit from the separation from luxury and a much simpler operating model driving growth and profitability.”
Richemont expects the write-down of YNAP assets of about 1.3 billion euros following the transaction, according to the release.
“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,” Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert said in the release.
In its latest earnings report in July, Richemont reported a 1% revenue decrease to 5.3 billion euros. At that time, YNAP was listed as Richemont’s discontinued operations, and saw a 15% decrease in sales.