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Alibaba denies links to luxury e-tailer Yoox Net-A-Porter

Report on Chinese fashion website Ladymax.cn suggests Alibaba had contacted Yoox Net-a-Porter over possible capital cooperation or even a takeover

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An employee of online clothing retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter, at its Tech Hub premises in White City in London. Shares in the company has risen on a report that Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group was interested in buying the company. .But a source at the company who did not want to be named has now told South China Morning Post the report “is not true”. Photo: Reuters

Shares in Italian online fashion retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) have surged in recent days as traders cited reported interest from Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group.

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A report on Chinese fashion website Ladymax.cn said the Chinese conglomerate, led by founder and chairman Jack Ma, had contacted Yoox Net-a-Porter over possible capital cooperation or even a takeover, adding it had not ruled out buying shares.

But a source at the company, who did not want to be named, has now told South China Morning Post the report “is not true”adding they had no knowledge of who sparked the rumour.

The suggested tie-up between Alibaba and YNAP comes just days after a mega deal that saw JD.com spend a whopping US$397 million on luxury fashion e-commerce site Farfetch.

Dubbed by some the Amazon of fashion, YNAP saw its shares jumped 9.24 per cent on Monday and Tuesday on the back of the Alibaba rumour – its biggest two-day rise since last September.

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The rally was just in time to mitigate investor concerns over mounting short interest in the stock, as the luxury e-commerce market became increasingly crowded.

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