Chinese swoop on fashion firm

A CHINESE internet giant has paid £314m for a stake in upmarket online retailer Farfetch as it gears up to tap into the Asian market.

Asian powerhouse JD.com has acquired a stake, the size of which is unknown, and said it would use it to drive traffic and sales in the £63bn Chinese market.

The British upstart has been encroaching on rival Net-a-Porter both home and abroad and in February revealed it had tapped Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter, to serve as its co-chairman.

JD will be one of the largest Farfetch shareholders and founder Richard Liu joins the board. Hundreds of fashion brands sell their products on Farfetch and it has launched a tie-up with Gucci offering a 90-minute delivery service.