Richemont offloads online retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter to Mytheresa
Sale ends Richemont's search for buyer
Mytheresa CEO confident company can improve the business
Richemont shares gain after deal announced
Adds details, share price, analyst, executive comment from paragraph 3
By John Revill
ZURICH, Oct 7 (Reuters) -Cartier owner Richemont CFR.S has agreed to sell its loss-making Yoox Net-A-Porter online fashion and accessories business to Mytheresa 0FVy.MU, ending the search for a new owner after the collapse of a previous deal last year.
Richemont will take a 33% stake in German luxury fashion platform Mytheresa in exchange for 100% of the share capital of YNAP, the Swiss group said on Monday.
Mytheresa will get YNAP's 555 million euro ($608.50 million) cash pile without any financial debt, as well as a revolving credit facility of 100 million euros from Richemont.
Richemont will write down approximately 1.3 billion euros, including the cash left in YNAP, which sells clothes, bags, accessories and jewellery, in its first-half results due to be published on Nov. 8.
Richemont shares opened 1.4% higher after the announcement.
"Overall, the disposal draws the line under Richemont’s misadventure into being an online retailer for goods made by other luxury players," said Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Jon Cox.
YNAP, which posted a 1.46 billion euro loss last year after a big write-down and a 14% drop in sales, had long been a sore spot for Richemont in the face of growing competition and the need for investment in technology and logistics.
Rival online luxury retailer Farfetch Holdings - an earlier suitor for YNAP - was rescued last year as the wider sector struggles with an economic slowdown, especially in China.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025, with Richemont taking a seat on Mytheresa's supervisory board.
Mytheresa plans to separate the profitable Net-A-Porter and Mr Porter businesses from the loss-making Yoox operation, which concentrates on discounted fashion and needs a lower cost and less complicated operating model, CEO Michael Kliger told reporters.
"This is a lot of work. The businesses have been money losing collectively," Kliger said, although he was confident Mytheresa could improve YNAP's performance.
"We bring expertise.... we are one of the very few, if not one of the only, digital platform that has been able to grow profitably," said Kliger, pointing to the company's own technology infrastructure and online marketing.
($1 = 0.9121 euros)
Reporting by John Revill, additional reporting by Alexander Huebner in Munich
Editing by Friederike Heine and David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan
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