All in the house Luxottica it is recomposing itself in rapid sequence, leaving no room for uncertainty or ambiguity about the governance of the group, according to an orderly and programmed path after the disappearance of its patron Leonardo DelVecchio just a week ago.
In a few hours the will was opened and immediately after the new board of Delfin, the safe of the Del Vecchio family, with the appointment of Francesco Milleri, former CEO of Essilor Luxottica and trusted manager of Leonardo, to take his place as president.
In the family company, that's worth 30 billion euros, the shares in Essilux, Covivio and the financial investments in are kept Generali e Mediobanca, for which new developments are now awaited.
“The Board of Directors of Delfin S.à rl has acknowledged the entry into office of Francesco Milleri as new Director of the Company, replacing Cav. Leonardo Del Vecchio, in implementation of the statutory provisions”, reads a note from Delfin. “Francesco Milleri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EssilorLuxottica, has also been appointed Chairman of Delfin, based on the indications of the founder Leonardo Del Vecchio. Romolo Bardin maintains the operational powers of the Company, in his role as Chief Executive Officer”.
In board of directors four other figures appear: the Milanese notary Mario Notari who oversaw many corporate transactions for the group and also sits on the board of Essilux, the Luxembourg lawyer Aloyse May e John Giallombardo, joined Delfin in 2013. May, on the board since 2015, is the technician of the group, with an office in the Grand Duchy and also serves to solve or interpret the folds of the law. While Giallombardo is Del Vecchio's man in Luxembourg, an area he knows well as he grew up professionally in Unicredit Luxembourg, of which he is general manager. He is also president of Luxair, the flag carrier of the small state which sees Delfin (13%) among its shareholders.
In Piazza Affari, the Essilorluxottica share is at 143,50 euros, down by 0,69% in the late morning.
Miller was first on the list, the manager closest to the founder
Observers say everything took place as in an almost automatic mechanism: the directors of the holding company selected the member from within the "watch list", envisaged by Delfin's statute, as part of a governance architecture designed with great precision, and compiled by Del Vecchio with the board of directors and family.
And it was Milleri himself, the first of those names. After all, all the clues pointed to him, the manager was closest to the founder, the one with whom he shared the path of the last ten years. Milleri, born in 1959, has recently been appointed chairman of Essilux, of which he is already managing director. He is the one who helped to grow the group up to 21 billion in revenues and to reach a market capitalization of over 65 billion.
In the will, the 30 billion safe is divided into 8 equal parts
The opening of the will of the patron of Luxottica, passed away on Monday 27 June at the age of 87 and second richest man in Italy behind Ferrero, showed the division of ownership of the safe into eight equal parts. Del Vecchio had long prepared the division of the property. According to his wishes, Delfin's shareholding was divided into eight segments of 12,5%, six for his children (in order of age, Claudio, Marisa, Paola, Leonardo Maria, Luca and Clemente, the latter having third partner, unmarried, Sabina Grossi), one for the last wife Nicoletta Zampillo, married twice, once in 1997 and in 2010 after the divorce in 2000, and the eighth for Rocco Basilico, son of the first marriage between the first Del Vecchio's wife with the banker and financier Paolo Basilico.
