Farfetch faces winding up petition from investors

Days after Coupang finalised its acquisition of the British e-tailer, a new report has stated that Farfetch is now facing a winding up petition from disgruntled shareholders that claimed founder José Neves “destroyed the value” of the company to push forward with the rescue deal.

This is according to The Telegraph, which said that the group of creditors were owed 400 million dollars by Farfetch, a sum that could potentially be wiped out by the takeover.

As such, the shareholders have reportedly now taken to filing a winding up petition in the Cayman Islands, in which they alleged there had been “serious deficiencies” in the company’s governance and blamed Farfetch management for “entering into unjustified value-destructive steps”.

In light of these claims, the group has now called for the appointment of a liquidator, the media outlet reported, as well as an investigation into the conduct of Neves, who they accused of striking a bargain to offload the business in exchange for a continued position at the helm, “at the expense of the company and its stakeholders”.

Pressure from the investors initially came to a head towards the end of January, days before South Korea’s Coupang closed on its 500 million dollar takeover of Farfetch, a deal the group called a “distressed sale” that came just four months after the company had reported a liquidity of over 800 million dollars.