(Finance) – Richemontthe Swiss luxury giant, has entered into binding agreements for the sale of 100% of the share capital of Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) by Mytheresaa German online retailer specializing in luxury women’s fashion. The transaction aims to create a leading, global, multi-brand digital luxury group that offers a highly curated and highly differentiated edition of the most prestigious luxury brands and products to luxury enthusiasts around the world, it said in a statement.
In the medium term, the Mytheresa’s vision for the combined group includes: the integration of YNAP’s Luxury division into Mytheresa, to form a group with three distinct storefronts: MYTHERESA, NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER; the separation of the off-price division, including YOOX and THE OUTNET, leading destinations for online luxury shopping at discounted prices, from the Luxury division to enable a simpler and more efficient operating model that leads to greater growth and profitability; the discontinuation of YNAP’s white label division, once the Richemont Maisons’ online stores, powered by YNAP, have migrated to their own platforms.
Upon closing of the transaction, Richemont will sell YNAP to Mytheresa with a cash position of 555 million euros and no debt financial, subject to customary closing adjustments, in exchange for shares that will be issued by Mytheresa representing ??33% of the capital fully diluted shareholding of Mytheresa at closing following the issue of the counterpart shares. Richemont will provide a 6-year revolving credit line of €100 million to finance YNAP’s general corporate needs, including working capital.
As a result of this transaction, Richemont currently expects that the devaluation of YNAP’s net assets will amount to approximately 1.3 billion euroswhich also represent the liquidity that will remain in YNAP upon completion.