ITALY/FRANCE. In big breaking news, Luxottica, the world’s biggest eyewear manufacturer, has agreed a merger with French lens maker Essilor, creating a sector giant valued at around €46-50 billion.
Based on the companies’ 2015 results, the new company would have posted combined net revenues of over €15 billion and combined net EBITDA of approximately €3.5 billion.
Luxottica owns a powerful portfolio of sunglasses brands, including Ray-Ban and Oakley. It also has licensing agreements for several major fashion houses, including Burberry, Dolce & Gabanna and Versace. It enjoys a particularly strong position in travel retail, through owned and licensed brands as well as via its stand-alone retail brand Sunglass Hut.
Luxottica Executive Chairman and Delfin Chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio commented: “With this agreement my dream to create a major global player in the eyewear industry, fully integrated and excellent in all its parts, comes finally true. It was some time now that we knew that this was the right solution but only today are there the right conditions to make it possible.
“The marriage between two key companies in their sectors will bring great benefits to the market, for employees and mainly for all our consumers. Finally, after fifty years, two products which are naturally complementary, namely frames and lenses, will be designed, manufactured and distributed under the same roof.”
Essilor Chairman and CEO Hubert Sagnières said: “Our project has one simple motivation: to better respond to the needs of an immense global population in vision correction and vision protection by bringing together two great companies, one dedicated to lenses and the other to frames.
“With extraordinary success, Luxottica has built prestigious brands, backed by an industry state-of-the-art supply chain and distribution network. Essilor brings 168 years of innovation and industrial excellence in the design, manufacturing and distribution of ophthalmic and sun lenses. By joining forces today, these two international players can now accelerate their global expansion to the benefit of customers, employees and shareholders as well as the industry as a whole.
Essilor will become a holding company with the new name ‘EssilorLuxottica’ via a hive-down of all of its operating activities into a wholly-owned company to be called Essilor International, and the contribution by Delfin of its Luxottica shares.
Following the transaction, Delfin would own between 31% and 38% of the shares of EssilorLuxottica and be its largest shareholder. The voting rights of any shareholder of EssilorLuxottica would be capped at 31% and there would no longer be double voting rights for the shares.
About the two players
Luxottica Group is a market leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of fashion, luxury, sports and performance eyewear, with a global wholesale network covering more than 150 different countries. It has approximately 7,400 optical and sun retail stores in North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, South Africa and Europe.
The Essilor Group designs, manufactures and distributes ophthalmic lenses and equipment for eyecare professionals. It owns brands such as Varilux, Crizal, Eyezen, Xperio, Transitions, Bolon, Foster Grant and Costa. It is active across multiple sectors, including prescription glasses, sunglasses and reading glasses, and in ophthalmic optics equipment.
