Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio returns to office to acquire control of Delfin, the holding company that safeguards the assets built by his father Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica. The president of Lmdv Capital and publisher of QN Media announced that he had sent his partners a new proposal to purchase their shares, ensuring that he had already obtained the availability of an international bank to finance the operation.
“It is the most serious proposal I have ever made” wrote Del Vecchio in a letter published in the Quotidiano Nazionale. The offer includes two possibilities: the total and immediate purchase of the shares or more gradual acquisition formulas over time, leaving each member the freedom to choose.
Financing and the new governance project
The availability of an international credit institution to support the operation represents one of the central elements of the proposal. According to Corriere della Sera the offer would be supported by a 22 billion loan from the US bank Citi (with a rate of 1.75%). Leonardo Maria aims to arrive thus to 82.5% of holding company that controls Essilux and has interests in Generali, UniCredit and MPS.
Del Vecchio also aims to reassure the other family members about the future management of the holding. The corporate vehicle that would acquire the shares would in fact have a statute with strengthened governance rules. Two figures with managerial, financial and legal experience would sit next to him on the board, with binding powers on the most significant financial decisions.
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The declared objective is to offer guarantees not only to family members, but also to the markets and workers of the companies belonging to the group.
A few days ago it was the Czech billionaire Michal Strnad, owner of the defense group Czechoslovak Group, who proposed around 30 billion euros to acquire control of Delfin. An offer deemed inadmissible by the heirs, also because it provides a 30% discount on the value of the assets.
Peace in the family after the clashes
In the letter Del Vecchio also retraces the difficult path followed after his father’s death. “I haven’t always done things the right way” he admits, acknowledging that he has made mistakes and that he has sometimes chosen the path of confrontation. Over the years he had first attempted to consolidate the balance of EssilorLuxottica, then to purchase the shares of family members less involved in management. A strategy which, he says, did not produce the desired results.
In recent months he therefore decided to change his approach, focusing on dialogue. His consultants, he explains, are in daily contact with those of the other partners. He also gave a mandate to renounce the legal actions initiated against some family members.
The meeting by November 7th
The push towards a new initiative would also have been several appeals received in recent days, both privately and publicly. People who have worked for a long time with the founder of Luxottica and other individuals close to the family’s entrepreneurial history would have asked him to attempt a final recomposition.
Del Vecchio therefore proposed that the members meet by November 7th, all together or individually, to illustrate the project in detail.
“I don’t ask anyone to give up their ideas. I ask you to evaluate a solution that can keep together those who want to leave and those who want to stay,” he writes. The match concerns the future of one of the most important Italian family holdings, major shareholder of EssilorLuxottica and holder of strategic stakes in other large groups. A match which, in addition to family balances, involves leading financial and industrial assets.