Dive Brief:
- E-commerce luxury business Mytheresa was granted regulatory approval from the European Commission to buy Yoox Net-A-Porter from Richemont, according to a news release Friday.
- With all the necessary approvals granted for the transaction, the companies plan to close the deal on April 23, per the release.
- The deal, which was announced in October, grants Mytheresa holding company MYT Netherlands Parent B.V. full control of YNAP for 555 million euros, or about $629 million.
Dive Insight:
Following the transaction, the Mytheresa holding company will be renamed LuxExperience B.V. and operate the brands Mytheresa, Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter, Yoox and The Outnet.
Mytheresa, Net-A-Porter and Mr Porter will maintain their brand identities while sharing central infrastructure, per the release. The off-price division, which includes Yoox and the Outnet, will separate from the luxury division. Mytheresa said this grants the division “a much simpler and more efficient operating model.”
Mytheresa is positioning the deal as an opportunity for it to become a global multibrand digital luxury group.
“We will become one of the leading global, digital luxury platforms for true luxury enthusiasts through having multiple, highly distinguished storefronts, all under the umbrella of LuxExperience,” Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger said in the release.
The restructuring plan is expected to take between two to three years. Mytheresa CFO Martin Beer said in the release that the deal would initially dilute the company’s performance at the group level, but it expects to return the business to profitability.
The addition of YNAP to the portfolio "fulfills Mytheresa’s ambition to build a leading online luxury group” worth about 3 billion euros of gross merchandise value per year, Beer said. The company wants to grow that number to 4 billion.
“We will fully leverage Mytheresa’s operational excellence, proprietary technology and proven ability to execute large-scale projects,” Beer said.
Meanwhile, the deal will give Richemont a 33% stake in the new combined company LuxExperience. When the transaction was announced, Richemont said it expected the write-down of the YNAP assets to total about 1.3 billion euros.
Richemont had been seeking a new buyer for YNAP since its initial deal to sell to Farfetch fell through in December 2023, when Farfetch was sold to Coupang.
In January, Richemont reported a 10% sales increase for Q3 of 6.15 billion euros with growth led by its jewelry division. YNAP has been marked as discontinued operations in Richemont’s quarterly results, and in Q3 it reported a 14% sales drop.
