Luxury online retailer Farfetch plans to raise $446M in IPO

Online luxury e-commerce company Farfetch says it expects to reap $446.5 million in its upcoming initial U.S. stock sale.

The London-based company, which runs a global platform matching upscale brands with affluent buyers, revealed pricing terms of its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in a filing late Wednesday.

Farfetch said it's selling 30 million shares that will be priced between $15 and $17 a share. It didn't give a date for the IPO, which was initially announced in August.

Farfetch doesn't buy or manufacture any of the products it sells but instead acts as a channel for 375 luxury brands such as Gucci and Prada.

Offerings include fur coats and fine watches that cost tens of thousands of dollars. The company also promises to deliver purchases within 90 minutes in some cities.

The company said it had 1.1 million active users as of June but its first-half losses more than doubled to $68.4 million.

Jose Neves, a Portuguese shoe designer and software designer, founded the company a decade ago in London. Farfetch and competitors such as Yoox Net-a-Porter are tapping into the lucrative global luxury market, which is forecast to grow to $446 billion by 2025 from $307 billion in 2017, according a report by consultancy by Bain cited in the filing.

The sector has largely escaped mainstream e-commerce players like Amazon because of the fears among luxury brands that reputations would be eroded.

Farfetch's global expansion plans include targeting China, where it teamed up last year with Chinese e-commerce and logistics company JD.com last year.