Growth slows for Rocket Internet's fashion brands but losses fall

Berlin start-up incubator Rocket Internet’s online fashion retailers improved their sales in the second quarter.

Growth was hit by negative currency effects – the companies grouped together in the Global Fashion Group (GFG) operate almost exclusively in high growth markets such as Eastern Europe, Asia and Brazil. Sales rose 5.6% to 297.8 million euros ($344m), the GFG announced on Friday in Luxembourg. On a constant-currency basis, sales were up 21.1%.

The group also managed to reduce its losses. In the three months between April and June, operating loss (EBITDA) improved from 12.1 million euros to 6.8 million euros (a $7.8m improvement).

Rocket Internet’s shares increased by 1.62% in pre-market trading on Tradegate Exchange and the company has the highest gain in the MDax index, which represents medium-sized companies in Germany.