YOOX acquired by Richemont

Richemont announced on 22 January 2018 a voluntary tender offer for the shares of YOOX Net-A-Porter Group it did not already hold, conducted through its RLG Italia Holding vehicle at an enterprise value of €1–10bn, representing an EV/EBITDA multiple of 15x–25x on 2017 figures. The acceptance period closed on 9 May, by which point tendered shares together with those already held reached 95% of the capital, exceeding the 90% threshold on which the offer was conditional, and settlement followed on 18 May. YOOX Net-A-Porter Group operates online retailing of luxury fashion through four platforms addressing distinct segments: net-a-porter.com and mrporter.com for current-season collections at full price, theoutnet.com and yoox.com for previous-season merchandise. Revenue reached €1–10bn in 2017, 16.9% above the previous year on an organic basis, with an EBITDA of €100–200M. The platforms recorded +840 million visits, c.10 million orders and c.3 million active customers, at an average basket of 330 euros. The acquisition reversed the arrangement established in 2015, when Richemont had merged its Net-A-Porter subsidiary into YOOX and accepted voting rights capped at a quarter in order to preserve the platform’s neutrality towards competing houses. Taking full control ended that neutrality and placed the distribution of rival brands under the ownership of one of them. Growth had come from every region, North America contributing close to 30% of revenue and rising 13%, Europe 12% and Asia-Pacific 22% to 360 million euros, while profitability moved in the opposite direction. Banca IMI coordinated the collection of acceptances and Georgeson acted as information agent.

As a reminder, YOOX had previously acquired Net-A-Porter in 2015 as part of its expansion strategy.