Rocket Internet Names GFG Management as Shareholders Invest More

BERLIN, Germany — Global Fashion Group, the online retailer backed by Rocket Internet SE, said investors Tengelmann Ventures GmbH and Verlinvest SA provided 32 million euros ($35 million) of new financing, paving the way for an potential initial public offering.

Following the investment, which valued the company at 2.8 billion euros, Berlin-based Rocket owns 23 percent and Sweden’s Investment AB Kinnevik holds 25.4 percent, the company, known as GFG, said Wednesday.

The e-commerce business, which Rocket and Kinnevik formed by combining retailers in emerging markets including Russia, Brazil, India, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, named Romain Voog as chief executive officer and Nils Chrestin as chief financial officer.

Voog, 43, joins from Amazon.com Inc., where he was most recently managing director for France. Chrestin, 34, worked previously at GFG’s Russian website Lamoda.

“GFG, under the lead of Romain and Nils, will develop solutions to leverage know-how across the group even better, scale operations and hone its global infrastructure,” the company said.

By Andrew Roberts. Editors: Matthew Boyle, Thomas Mulier, Tom Lavell.