Luxury goods initial public offering: Farfetch prices shares at $20

E-commerce
giant Farfetch is listed in the New York Stock
Exchange.
Ethel Jiang/Business
Insider

• Farfetch priced shares at $20 apiece, above the
  $17-$19 range that was expected.
• The UK-based online luxury-goods retailer
  would raise $885 million in total, well above its previous
  target.
• Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com acquired a 13.94% stake
  of Farfetch in 2017, and agreed to buy more Class A
  ordinary shares after Farfetch’s IPO to maintain its ownership
  stake.
• Fafetch has rapidly grown its customer base,
  but hasn’t yet made a profit.

Online luxury-goods retailer Farfetch is set to go public
Friday through an initial public offering at the New York Stock
Exchange. The company priced shares at $20
apiece, above the $17-$19 that was expected. With the current
pricing, the company would raise $885 million, well above its
target of $446.5
million.

In its
public filing, the company said its customers are growing
rapidly, but it still hasn’t made a profit.

“As of June 30, 2018, we had 1,118,047 Active Consumers, up
from 796,297 as of June 30, 2017,” the company said. “The number
of orders for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was 1,305,297,
up from 853,195” during the same period in 2017.

Farfetch also established a strategic relationship with
JD.com, the second largest Chinese e-commerce site after Alibaba,
to grab share in the rapidly growing luxury market in China. A
subsidiary of JD.com, Kadi Group, acquired a 13.94% stake of
Farfetch on June 21, 2017, and agreed to buy one-third
of Class A ordinary shares at Farfetch’s IPO price in a
private placement to maintain its percentage holding.

The underwriters for Farfetch’s IPO
include Goldman Sachs, UBS, Allen & Co., and JP Morgan.

Farfetch will trade under the ticker “FTCH.”

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