Sources are buzzing that luxury e-commerce site Mytheresa is closing in on an acquisition of the troubled Yoox Net-a-porter e-commerce operation, owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont.
Officials of Mytheresa did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Richemont — which is currently in a quiet period and will report its interim results for fiscal 2024-25 on Nov. 8 — also did not return a request for comment at press time.
YNAP is the parent of Yoox and Net-a-porter, both competitors to Mytheresa.
Munich-based Mytheresa, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is a leader in selling designer and upscale fashion online. The company is on more stable footing than Yoox or Net-a-porter and has managed to transcend the malaise permeating much of the luxury sector. Recently, Mytheresa reported top- and bottom-line progress for its fourth quarter ended June 30 and signaled confidence for the future.
“There’s more momentum going in the new fiscal year,” Michael Kliger, Mytheresa’s chief executive officer, recently told WWD.
Kliger said the company was projecting 7 to 13 percent net sales growth and 3 to 5 percent adjusted EBITDA margin for fiscal 2025. “We do see continued uncertainties and macro headwinds, but what we also see is that the U.S. is quite strong for us.”
Kliger said Mytheresa’s second half benefited from the difficulties experienced by competitors, particularly those operating luxury websites. “Matches went out of business. Farfetch switched ownership and has been cutting costs. Net-a-porter continues to struggle,” he said.
Mytheresa narrowed its bottom-line loss to 3.6 million euros in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30, compared with a loss of 5.4 million euros a year earlier. Adjusted net income in the fiscal fourth quarter grew to 4.5 million euros, from 1.1 million euros in the year-ago period. The adjustments include one-time effects such as share-based-compensation, transaction-related costs and legal costs.
In its fiscal year, Mytheresa’s adjusted net income came to 7.7 million euros, compared with 18.4 million euros in fiscal 2023. Net sales increased 9.8 percent to 840.9 million euros from 766 million euros in fiscal 2023. Gross merchandise value grew 7.1 percent to 913.6 million euros.
Mytheresa chief executive officer Michael Kliger
Roderick Aichinger
It’s not quite a David and Goliath scenario, but Mytheresa’s annual volume is less than half of the $2 billion in volume generated by YNAP, according to The Fashion Law website, which posted a report that a deal was nearing on Thursday.
Considering the weak financial position of YNAP, and Richemont’s past unsuccessful attempts to divest YNAP, it’s likely Mytheresa could work out a low-cost deal here.
A takeover of Net-a-porter would provide Mytheresa with logistics operations in the U.S., potentially propelling further growth in the States. Net-a-porter has a distribution center in Mahwah, N.J., and Yoox has a distribution center in Secaucus, N.J.
A year ago, Mytheresa unveiled a new distribution center at Halle/Leipzig Airport in Germany. The 600,000-square-foot state-of-the-art center has the advantage of being located a mile from the DHL international air freight hub at the airport, enabling speedier processing of incoming merchandise, outgoing orders and returns. Mytheresa also has another distribution center in Munich.
Furthermore, the deal would also establish Mytheresa as among the few remaining multibrand luxury websites, along with saks.com, bergdorfgoodman.com and neimanmarcus.com, which are all due to be under the same corporate ownership once Hudson’s Bay Co. completes its acquisition of Neiman Marcus and mergers it into Saks.
Over the past nine months, Richemont has been typically tight-lipped about its quest to find a buyer for the money-losing YNAP. In January, Richemont’s chief financial officer Burkhart Grund confirmed that plans were in the works to find a “new, controlling shareholder” and that Richemont was willing to sell all or part of the company. At the time, he said that Richemont has already received “unsolicited interest” from a number of parties.
At the time, he said the expectation was that YNAP would be sold “within the next 12 months.” On Richemont’s website, the online retail group remains classified as “held for sale” and is considered a discontinued operation.
In July, during the first fiscal quarter results announcement, Richemont said YNAP’s sales were down 15 percent at actual and constant rates in a difficult climate for online pure players.
Industry sources say Net-a-porter has been progressively tightening its belt ahead of sale and buying only brands with 80 percent sell-throughs or more. The company declined to comment.
Over the past nine months since the long-awaited sale of YNAP to Farfetch and Alabbar fell through, speculation has been rife about who might buy the online luxury player, with Frasers Group and Bain Capital among those that have been said to be interested, along with Mytheresa.
