Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, an heir to the Ray-Ban empire created by his late father, has publicly urged his family’s holding company to support his €10 billion ($11.5 billion) plan to acquire the stakes of two siblings, just days before a pivotal June 30 shareholder meeting, Bloomberg News said in a report.
In an open letter published Friday on the website of online newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale, which he owns, the 31-year-old criticised the board of Delfin Sarl for not providing clear explanations regarding its changing stance on a proposed transaction that would make him the largest shareholder of the Luxembourg-based investment vehicle.
“The issue stopped being financial and became a matter of governance,” Del Vecchio wrote. He questioned why objections to the deal surfaced only after shareholders had already approved key components of the transaction and after public statements had described the reorganisation as a stabilising measure.
The letter intensifies a dispute over control of one of Europe’s largest fortunes and underscores the difficulties facing Del Vecchio’s effort amid the complex governance framework established by Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica, whose business later became EssilorLuxottica SA, before he died in 2022.
The proposal is partly intended to reduce divisions within a family that has struggled to agree on major decisions.
Del Vecchio is seeking to acquire the combined 25 per cent stake in Delfin held by his siblings, Luca and Paola. The transaction would increase his ownership to 37.5 per cent, making him by far the company’s largest shareholder and potentially bringing an end to years of uncertainty surrounding succession within the family empire.
The deal, however, depends on securing a complex €10 billion financing package involving UniCredit SpA, BNP Paribas SA and Credit Agricole SA, one of the largest acquisition financings ever pursued by an individual in Europe, the Bloomberg report said quoting La Repubblica.
Del Vecchio said lenders involved in the transaction had recently requested greater clarity on future dividends, capital stability and Delfin’s long-term strategy as financing talks progressed.
While he described those requests as legitimate, he argued that Delfin’s board had failed to adopt a clear and unified approach to addressing them.
As financing questions remain unresolved, Delfin chairman Francesco Milleri is considering an alternative proposal under which the holding company would repurchase the stakes being sold by Luca and Paola Del Vecchio, according to La Repubblica.