Luxottica shines in Piazza Affari: the stock rises around 16:40 by 3,19%, it is the Salmoiraghi & Viganò effect. The Agordo-based group would in fact be one step away from acquiring the largest Italian eyewear chain whose majority belongs to the Tabacchi family. That the dossier was on the table was confirmed at the end of October by CEO Andrea Guerra, protagonist of a media "accident" of denials together with the patron Leonardo Del Vecchio. In fact, before the war, del Vecchio had denied any interest: “I too read it in the newspapers. It's absolutely not true”, he said as he entered the headquarters for the approval of the quarterly accounts on October 25th. Guerra had then admitted the existence of the dossier, while subsequently correcting the shot: "We've been invited to look at a dossier but that doesn't mean we're interested," he specified. “In recent years, the Italian eyewear sector has lost many important protagonists from an Italian point of view, many eyewear companies have ended up in foreign hands – said Guerra at the time -. Salmoiraghi & Viganò is the main Italian chain and it would be a shame for everyone if, in the end, we again saw a choice towards foreign countries, so we feel some responsibility as a leader. We have open dossiers, and there's this too. We look at you with great seriousness and attention".
In fact, the French of Alain Afflelou and the Dutch Hal, Safilo's main shareholder, have also set their sights on S&V. But in the end, it seems to be the Venetian Luxottica who wins after an Italy-France head-to-head. According to Il Sole24Ore, the operation, which could be announced in the coming days, should involve the purchase of a 40% minority stake and a put option on a further 40%. Indiscretions reported valuations of 200-250 million for the enterprise value, figures which however for some analysts are quite high. The Tabacchi family, which was assisted in the operation by Rothschild's advisors and which should remain with a 20% stake, was convinced to put the majority of the S&V chain on the market by the economic crisis which reflected on the group's assets: in 2011 the chain, 500 shop windows and 9% of the Italian market, closed with a turnover down by 10% to 170 million and a negative net result.
Wind in the sails instead for Luxottica, which in addition to a third quarter that ended with very positive results, also conquered the French Alain Mikli International just a few weeks ago, a French company that operates in the luxury and trendy eyewear sector with the aim of further strengthening the luxury segment of its brand portfolio. On the contrary, the acquisition of S&V represents a change in Luxottica's strategy (and for this reason for some it could be subject to second thoughts by Del Vecchio), because it would be the first operation in the retail of European optical chains and, for some analysts, would involve a risk of negative reaction from independent opticians
