Czech billionaire Michal Strnad offers €30 billion for ray-Ban firm holding
Michal Strnad just offered €30 billion for Delfin, the investment firm holding the Del Vecchio family's stake in EssilorLuxottica, which makes Ray-Ban.
The short version
- The proposal comes as the eight heirs fight over the family fortune.
- A sale requires an almost unanimous vote.
Check the boardrooms in Europe this week. Michal Strnad, the 34-year-old head of the defense group Czechoslovak Group (CSG), has made a stunning €30 billion offer to acquire Delfin, the investment company of the late founder of Luxottica. Delfin is the key shareholder in EssilorLuxottica, the massive eyewear giant behind Ray-Ban and Oakley.
According to the Italian daily Il Domani, the proposal was laid out in a letter dated October 20. "I am looking for long-term investments in companies active in sectors at the top of their value chains," Michal Strnad wrote in the letter.
The bold move arrives just as tensions rise among Delfin's eight heirs, who hold equal stakes in the Luxembourg-based investment vehicle. Delfin's capital is divided among the late founder's six children, his widow, and her son from a previous marriage, and any sale requires an almost unanimous decision from a group that is increasingly at odds.
Beyond its stake in the eyewear giant, Delfin holds major positions in insurer Generali and Italian banks Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UniCredit, pushing its total estimated market value to €43 billion. Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, one of the six children, confirmed he was informed of an offer from a foreign investor, stating that his father's life work must remain part of Italy's heritage.
A spokesman for the buyer's outside investment activities declined to comment on market speculation, and Delfin also declined to comment. For anyone tracking global manufacturing and family-held empires, a €30 billion buyout battle over the glasses on millions of faces is a reminder of how quickly old fortunes change hands.
