French luxury goods maker Compagnie Financière Richemont SA has completed its acquisition of web-only women’s fashion retailer Net-a-Porter LLC.

In April Richemont, which owns such high-end brands as Cartier, Dunhill, IWC, Piaget and Van Cleef & Arpels, announced it was acquiring Net-a-Porter, No. 83 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, for 350 million British pounds ($534.48 million). Now that the deal is complete, Richemont will operate Net-a-Porter.com, which in 2009 generated web sales of about $182.5 million, as a stand-alone entity.

“Net-a-Porter will continue to operate as an independent entity, building on its success to date, and will be able to draw on Richemont to support its international development,” says Richemont CEO Johann Rupert.

Net-a-Porter has adopted the style of a chic fashion magazine to sell collections from more than 300 well-known designers, selling to customers in more than 170 countries, the company says. It offers some 300 brands including Jimmy Choo, Stella McCartney and Givenchy, delivering clothes and accessories from an 18 euro ($24.31) triple-pack of socks up to a 16,600 euro handbag ($22,419.96).

The final details to acquire Net-A-Porter also occurred at the same time Richemont released its year-end numbers for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010:

• Total sales dropped 4.4% to 5.17 billion euros ($6.2 billion) from 5.41 billion ($6.49 billion).
• Profits from continuing operations declined 6.0% to 693 million euros ($832 million) from 737 million euros ($884.9 million).