By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Farfetch stock (NYSE:FTCH) traded nearly 4% higher in Friday’s premarket trading as the company confirmed it is in talks to take a minority stake in Richemont 's (SIX:CFR) luxury ecommerce platform Yoox (MI: Net-A-Porter YNAP).
The company said there can be no guarantee the parties will agree on any of the options being explored.
Richemont (OTC:CFRUY) stock surged 9% in Swiss trading, also boosted by its quarterly results. Friday, the owner of brands such as Cartier and Piaget, said it would invite other firms besides Farfetch to participate in turning YNAP into a neutral, industry-wide platform with no overall controlling shareholder.
Brands have been reluctant to board the loss-making YNAP given that it's controlled by a rival. Richemont has struggled to turn around YNAP, unable to bridge the gap between online and store-based luxury retail.
That has fueled speculation about a possible sale and there were reports this week that activist investor Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point (NYSE:SPNT) had built a stake in Richemont and was pressing it to improve its performance.
Richemont reported more than a seven-fold jump in net profit to 1.25 billion euro ($1.4 billion) in six months through September.