ZURICH (Reuters) – Richemont said on Wednesday it did not intend to inject cash into online luxury retailer Farfetch, following press reports that it was considering delisting. .
Farfetch founder Jose Neves is considering the possibility after a troubled listing on the New York Stock Exchange and is working with advisers at JP Morgan, the British daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
The group, in which Jose Neves has a 15% stake, declined to comment.
Richemont, which has agreed a deal to sell its Yoox Net-A-Porter fashion and accessories business to Farfetch, said it was monitoring the situation “carefully”.
The Swiss luxury group, owner of Cartier, added that it was examining its options regarding the agreement, announced in August 2022, under which it will receive 58.5 million Farfetch shares.
“Richemont would like to remind its shareholders that it has no financial obligations to Farfetch and that it has no plans to lend or invest in Farfetch,” Richemont said in a statement Wednesday.
According to analysts at Royal Bank of Canada, if Farfetch were to delist, the group could try to renegotiate or return to the agreement.
A person familiar with the matter said Richemont had “absolutely no intention” of pumping money into Farfetch, but declined to say whether a delisting would undo the deal.
Richemont’s statement shows that the company is distancing itself from Farfetch and that the transaction is now less likely, said Patrik Schwendimann, analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank.
Richemont said Wednesday that neither its divisions nor YNAP have adopted Farfetch’s platforms and that they will continue to operate their own sales platforms.
On Tuesday, Farfetch warned that it would not announce its quarterly results on Wednesday as planned, adding that the results forecasts were no longer reliable.
(Reporting by John Revill, with contributions from Mimosa Spencer in Paris; French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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