Showroomprive.com receives 30 million investment from Vishop

During the second day of the week Showroomprive.com has its books open to prepare for its launch on the stock market, the French flash-sales site has received 30 million euros worth of investment from online retailer Vipshop Holdings Ltd.

As the Chinese company said on Tuesday, the investment in Showroomprive.com is aimed at further expanding its overseas footprint. According to Vipshop, the latest investment is a key step in its "going global" efforts.

The company said it was looking forward to further collaborations with Showroomprive in the future.

Lu Zhenwang, an independent analyst at Shanghai Wangqing Consultancy, said theinvestment is an opportunity for Vipshop to add more high-end products to its portfolio andexpand customer base.

"Vipshop's growth momentum is stalling due to the slowing Chinese economy and saturationof online shoppers," he said, adding that

"By adding luxury goods toits online platform, Vipshop cannot only gain new customers, but also encourage existingcustomers to spend more."

Vipshop posted a decline in revenue growth during the second quarter of the year. Revenuegrowth fell to 77.6 percent from 136.1 percent in the same quarter a year ago.

French online retailer Showroomprive is seeking as much as 373 million euros in an initial public offering to expand. In fact, the IPO is set to value the company at as much as 870 million euros, Co-chief ExecutiveOfficer Thierry Petit said on a conference call.

"There's a lot of room to grow, and we want to have the weapons for it," Petit said. "The world's strongest fashion brands are in France, in Italy. There's no doubt about theattractiveness of Europe in our industry."

Showroomprive.com said it expected to sell shares between 19.50 euros and 26.30 euros apiece, giving it a market value of 660 million to 870 million euros. Vipshop will have a stake of between 2 and 4 percent, according to the company, while Petit and Dayan, who own 60 percent of the stock, have said they will keep a majority stake.

Net proceeds for the company of around 45 million euros will help fund international expansion and acquisitions.

The soon to be a public company will start trading in the shares on Euronext Paris on November, 3.