At least six law firms have been called in to assist as Swiss-based Richemont agreed to sell its struggling digital business Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) to German online retailer Mytheresa.

Richemont is advised by an integrated team of four law firms led by Slaughter and May alongside Italy’s Gatti Pavesi Bianci Ludovici, Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and Cravath Swaine & Moore. Baker McKenzie is serving as co-counsel to Mytheresa alongside Latham & Watkins.

Richemont, owner of jewellers Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, has been searching for a solution to divest YNAP after a deal with e-commerce group Farfetch collapsed in December. Richemont will transfer the entire share capital of YNAP to Mytheresa with a cash position of €555m and no financial debt, the companies said on Monday. It will also provide YNAP with a €100m revolving credit facility. 

In exchange, Richemont will take a 33% stake in Mytheresa. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025. 

“We are pleased to have found such a good home for YNAP,” said Richemont chair Johann Rupert. 

Richemont now expects to write down YNAP’s net assets by another €1.3bn, including the cash. The group will have the right to name one person to Mytheresa’s supervisory board once the transaction closes. 

YNAP has been plagued by losses and has already cost Richemont billions of euros in write-downs. Richemont’s losses from discontinued operations, which mostly stemmed from writing down YNAP, were €1.5bn in the year to 31 March, compared with a loss of €3.6bn the year before. The combined group after the deal closes will have a value of about €3bn. 

Mytheresa chief executive Michael Kliger said the objective was to expand the group to €4bn by fiscal year 2029 with “high single-digit adjusted earnings” before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. “With this transaction, Mytheresa aims to create a pre-eminent, multi-brand, digital, luxury group worldwide,” he said. 

Mytheresa has emerged as one of the stronger players in the luxury e-commerce industry following the implosion of rivals Farfetch and Matchesfashion in the past 12 months. The German group, which is listed in New York, has gained customers as other online platforms collapsed, benefiting from its wealthy, high-end client base. 

The new group will offer three storefronts for clients: Mytheresa, Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter. Discounters Yoox and The Outnet will be separated out from the luxury division. YNAP’s ‘white label’ business, which offered online service infrastructure to other brands including those in the Richemont group, will be discontinued. 

Richemont bought Net-a-Porter in 2010 and merged it with Yoox five years later in a deal that led to the departure of Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet. 

Slaughter and May’s team includes corporate partners Robert Innes and Richard Hilton, competition partner William Turtle, technology partner David Ives, tax partner Charles Osborne, financing partner Ed Fife, and employment partner Philippa O’Malley. Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici is led by partners Franco Barucci and Amélie Gillet; De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is led by partners Michael Schouten and Casper Nagtegaal; and Cravath is led by partner George Stephanakis.

Baker McKenzie – which is advising Mytheresa and its supervisory board on strategy and structuring matters, Dutch governance and corporate law, US securities and capital markets, Dutch banking and finance law, and Italian tax matters – is led by partners Bernhard Trappehl, Roger Bivans, Rebecca Kuipers-Zimmerman and Francesco Pisciotta.