Co-opt Massimo Vian to the role of co-CEO with powers for the Operations and Product area and, ad interim, for the Corporate and Markets functions. This is the decision that the president of Luxottica, Leonardo Del Vecchio, will propose to the board of directors convened for today after resignation presented yesterday by Enrico Cavatorta. This is what emerges from a note released this morning by the leading eyewear group.
In Piazza Affari, the Luxottica share failed to make the opening price, blocked in the auction with a theoretical reduction of more than 9%. In the following minutes, the shares were admitted to trading, registering a decrease of around 10 percentage points, to 36,9 euros.
Del Vecchio then specifies that “it is currently being studied a rearrangement of Delfin”, the family safe that controls the group, “with the aim of improving its governance and further separating ownership from the management of investee companies”.
The number one of Luxottica therefore clarifies that son Leonardo Maria's board entry "was never taken into consideration" and that the eldest Claudio, today on the board, “will not be reconfirmed at the natural expiry of the mandate, to give homogeneity and coherence to the positions of all family members".
Cavatorta stepped back yesterday, just over a month after his appointment instead of Andrea Guerra, arrived at the end of an interview with Del Vecchio himself. The manager has also already sold the securities linked to his stock options (collection of over 22 million).
The matter of contention in today's extraordinary Board of Directors is the tormented governance of the group, conditioned by family disagreements. According to rumors, Del Vecchio's last wife, Nicoletta Zampillo, would have asked for 25% of the shares in the family safe (today distributed equally among the heirs resulting from the entrepreneur's three marriages) plus a seat on the board of directors for his son Leonardo Maria (21) in place of his eldest son Claudio (57 , owner of Brooks Brothers) as well as a leading role for his accountant Francesco Milleri.
After 15 years of esteem and collaboration, the split between Cavatorta and Del Vecchio seems to have come about due to the new role that the consultant Francesco Milleri, a family friend close to Nicoletta Zampillo, would be taking over the management of the company. The story does not seem to please even the board of directors, which is allegedly considering the possibility of resigning in turn.
