Still Climbing
After a blockbuster opening, investors drove Farfetch’s shares up by another 6.3 percent.
Shares of the luxury platform rose again Monday after the stock’s blockbuster debut Friday.
Fetching.
At least that’s what Wall Street still thinks of its latest darling — Farfetch. Shares of the luxury e-commerce platform rose 6.3 percent, or $1.80, to $30.25 Monday.
Those gains came on top of the 42.3 percent pop the company saw right after its initial public offering Friday. The offering priced at $20 a share, well ahead of prior estimates, and raised $672 million for the company, which will use the funds for general corporate purposes and, perhaps, acquisitions.
The latest jump left Farfetch with a market capitalization of $8.77 billion and stood out on a down day in the market, with investors fretting, again, over the deteriorating trade relationship between the U.S. and China.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 181.45 points, or 0.7 percent, to 26,562.05. Most companies tied the fashion industry were caught up in the declines or falling for their own individual reasons.
Shares of Michael Kors Holdings dropped 8.2 percent to $66.71 on concerns that its still unofficial deal to buy Versace will be expensive or disruptive. Also declining were Avon Products Inc., 4.5 percent to $2.33; G-III Apparel Group, 4.3 percent to $45.47; Hanesbrands Inc., 3.2 percent to $18.11; J.C. Penney Co. Inc., 3 percent to $1.96, and Macy’s Inc., 2.6 percent to $34.75.
Farfetch, while intimately involved in fashion, has a very different business model than any of these companies.
It is very much a digital play — although it did buy the London retailer Browns.
Farfetch provides a marketplace online, where retailers and brands can connect with consumers. It also plays on a global scale and last year received a $397 million investment from Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.
That global luxury positioning and digital focus has made the company something like catnip for investors and made cofounder and chief executive officer José Neves a billionaire, on paper at least — even though the company has grown quickly, but not turned a profit.
But Neves plans to keep growth up. “This industry will continue to grow and 25 percent of luxury sales are expected to happen online in the next 10 years,” Neves told WWD Friday.
With the offering last week, Farfetch is making its bid to be an even bigger part of that growth. ■