Silke Koltrowitz

ZURICH (Reuters). Activist hedge-fund Third Point (NYSE 🙂 bought Richemont’s stake, according to media reports on Sunday. This development is likely to bring the capital structure of the luxury goods company and its underperforming online businesses into the limelight.

Third Point is controlled by Daniel Loeb (billionaire investor) and U.S-based fund Artisan Partners(NYSE:), who have a 1.2% share in Richemont. Miss Tweed reported that Third Point and Financial Times cited sources familiar with the matter.

Richemont shares, which underperformed the sector leader LVMH in last year’s market, but rose more than half a percent this year, was unable to be comment. They rose 3.6% to 1249 GMT.

Contacted via Reuters by Third Point, the company that recently bought a significant stake in Royal Dutch Shell, (LON;), and demanded that the major oil producer be split into many companies, Third Point declined to comment. Unfortunately, Artisan was not available immediately.

This is an interesting and promising development. Jean-Philippe Bertschy from Vontobel said that external pressure is good for health.

Richemont holds two types of shares. The listed A shares are traded on SIX Swiss Exchange, and the unlisted B shares owned by Johann Rupert, a South African billionaire. These shares represent 9.1% of equity but half of votes.

Bertschy claimed that such a structure wasn’t viable in today’s corporate governance context.

“In my opinion, Third Point and Artisan Partners are not the only ones to exert pressure in that sense, it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Richemont made significant investments in its online distributors, which are losing money. This has led to speculation that Yoox-Net-a-Porter could be sold.

Jon Cox, Kepler Cheuvreux Analyst, stated that he expects YNAP will be sold eventually.

“But, I believe that the company would do this regardless and want it to be financially sound before it can realize higher value.” Cox stated that Third Point will not be able “to accelerate this process.”

Richemont will report results on Friday, September 30th for the six month period to Sept. 30.