Mike Ashley’s retail empire Frasers Group is mulling a potential takeover bid of Yoox Net-a-Porter from Swiss luxury group Richemont, Retail Week can reveal.
Retail Week understands that Frasers has approached investment bank Goldman Sachs, which has been running a sale of Yoox Net-a-Porter, and wants to run the rule over a bid. It is thought to be in the process of drawing up a non-disclosure agreement surrounding the potential deal.
An industry source with understanding of the business said that a takeover of Yoox Net-a-Porter would align with Frasers’ acquisitive behaviour and its strategic mission to bolster its luxury arm and eliminate some of its biggest competitors.
Frasers Group has declined Retail Week’s request for comment.
Acquiring Yoox Net-a-Porter would also bring a number of brands into Frasers Group, including Loro Piana, which sources say is a personal favourite of Ashley’s.
Richemont is reportedly looking to do a deal for Yoox Net-a-Porter for “next to nothing” after its attempt to offload the embattled business to Farfetch fell through following a rescue bid by Coupang in December last year.
The Swiss luxury group, which also owns the likes of Chloé and Cartier, reported a loss of €1.5bn (£1.2bn) for the year to March 31, 2024.
Liberum analyst Wayne Brown, joint house broker to Frasers Group, says that Frasers would not be the natural acquirer and any potential deal for Yoox Net-a-Porter would present challenges for the group.
“I would be surprised if Frasers wasn’t looking at it because it looks at everything,” he said.
“But there are complications about bringing the brand on a long-term journey with Frasers and the business owning the Net-a-Porter platform; there are question marks around their ability to do that.
“The price of the assets would have to be very low to be appealing to the likes of Frasers based on all of those things.
“Considering how challenging this market is in a digital landscape, it would have to be at a very low price to be attractive to Frasers and maybe that price would be too low for Richemont.”
Frasers Group recently tested the waters in the luxury fashion space, acquiring Matches at the end of 2023. Frasers put the business into administration less than three months after buying it.
At the time, Frasers said that Matches “consistently” missed business plan targets and continued to make “material losses”.
The group said “too much change would be required to restructure it” but added that, despite putting Matches into administration, it remains “committed to the luxury market and its brand partners”.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment and Richemont has yet to respond to Retail Week’s request.
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