One question remains suspended in the face of the most intense stock battle of recent times: why at 85 years old Leonardo Del Vecchio turned into a raider after a life dedicated to building an industrial empire without caring too much about good or bad salons, climbs and stakes
Who knows the richest man in Italy – according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires index, in the last year he added $ 9 billion to his assets, reaching the Ferreros at 34 billion – believes that behind the Mediobanca / Generali takeovers there is the will to leave a mark in history, to associate his name with the largest Italian financial operation ever.
In his head, a company either grows exponentially, or it makes no sense to exist: he, a former “martinitt” (named after the institute for Milanese orphans), has brought Luxottica from the land donated by the municipality through mergers and acquisitions of Agordo to be a global giant with 140,000 employees, 17 billion in turnover and 2.8 billion in profits (2019 data). Along the way, however, he had to give up a large chunk: he now controls 32% of the current EssiLux, and half of the company has its heart in Paris, even if for a few years the helm will remain on this side of the Alps. EVERYTHING STARTS FROM THE IEO
So what to do with the considerable nest egg accumulated in recent years, and in particular after the merger with Essilor
Continue to expand by buying the GrandVision optics chain, sure. Or become the king of Milanese healthcare: in 2018 he put 500 million euros on the plate for the Ieo, the center of excellence of oncology wanted by Umberto Veronesi , but not as a simple donation. In the plans, his foundation would take over the management of the Institute. The other shareholders, among which Mediobanca, Unipol, Intesa, Pirelli, Banco Bpm and Mediolanum stand out, do not like this “hostile takeover” and reject the offer, which would have diluted them and rendered them irrelevant.
And this refusal to unleash the chain of events that leads us to today: in 2019 he buys 7% of Mediobanca and begins to press for a change of pace in management, challenging the CEO Alberto Nagelat the 2020 meeting. But the manager wins the first round and gets reconfirmed, above all thanks to one detail: the banking system is not an industry like any other. Unlike eyewear, it is heavily regulated and carefully supervised. With his lawyer Sergio Erede , Del Vecchio is forced to ask the ECB for authorization to grow first to 10% and, months later, to 20%.
The go-ahead comes from Frankfurt only on condition of not creating earthquakes in the management of a key institution in the Italian system. Mediobanca is no longer a safe of strategic shareholdings as in the days of Enrico Cuccia and Vincenzo Maranghi, but it remains an investment bank, which in the meantime has also become commercial (with CheBanca!) and active in consumer credit (Compass).
The other detail is that in Europe the banks controlled by a private individual or by a family can be counted on the fingers of one (mutilated) hand. These are relatively small institutions, or in transition. Or, as in the case of Santander, where the weight of private shareholders is tied more to traditions than to shares (the Botins have only 2%, yet they continue to dictate the line). From this derive the Byzantine procedures required by the ECB: a move like Del Vecchio’s has never been seen since the European central bank has existed. THE ROLE OF MILLERI
FRANCESCO MILLERI AT LUXOTTICA
Who carries on the battleIf on the legal level there is the Erede lawyer, on the managerial one, Francesco Milleri
plays a leading role . Friend and neighbor of the couple formed by Del Vecchio and Nicoletta Zampillo, 62 years old, in 2007 he began to supply management software for Luxottica, until he took care only of the company with a contract that in 2019 reaches 60 million euros a year. He will be the one “to replace me in Essilux in case I fail”, the founder revealed to Corriere in 2017. And last year, to the Messaggero, he adds: “He was able to translate my vision into actions, and then into results. I appreciate in him the clarity and simplicity with which he manages to face very complicated situations and the ability to stay focused on the final goal without ever giving up “. Keep in mind the vision, fundamental concept to answer the question of this article.
From the beginnings during the now mythological management of Andrea Guerraended abruptly in 2014, Milleri in his role as Del Vecchio’s secretary-consultant-shadow man saw several CEOs fall (four in three years) before he became the designated heir to lead the group and decide strategies larger than Delfin, the Luxembourg safe in which all family members have equal shares – but the threads are held by Del Vecchio senior, Zampillo and Milleri. Which, not surprisingly, is the sole director of Delfin H, the company that was to take control of the Ieo. THE FINAL GOAL AND THE MEDIOBANCA-UNICREDIT-GENERALI GIANT
In Mediobanca Delfin it has reached 20%, close to the takeover bid (25%), and in any case, governance will not be at stake again until the 2023 assembly (except for the aforementioned earthquakes). Over the last few months, its liquidity-laden guns have been redirected to Generali. With the other ultra-liquid Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and the Crt Foundation, he created a consultation agreement to replace, at the April 2022 assembly, the CEO Philippe Donnet , guilty of not having enlarged the group “Luxottica style “, Ie with acquisitions, mergers and relaunches. In reality, Donnet has recently concluded the operation on Cattolica, and presented much higher accounts than expected, but Del Vecchio’s parameter is the European giants Axa, Zurich and Allianz.
Without going into the details of what is happening between Milan and Trieste – including lists of the board of directors, bills against the lists of the board, behind the scenes movements of Benetton , Monge , De Agostini , etc. – it is interesting to understand what the endgame of Del Vecchio and Milleri is, represented in Generali by Romolo Bardin , who defines himself as independent despite being CEO of Delfin and working for Del Vecchio companies since 2002. Merging Insurance with Mediobanca
Add to this duo Unicredit, to create the largest Italian financial center
The union between Generali and Piazzetta Cuccia, which have always been linked by shareholder ties, is certainly not a new idea. Those who oppose it consider synergies to be scarce and integration difficult given the difference in size – about 3 to 1. Unicredit, one of the few shareholdings that Del Vecchio has been carrying with him for decades, has left Mediobanca’s capital and is stuck in the Mps bump. On the antitrust level, this trio would create many headaches, as well as being impossible to control in terms of capital, even for an arch-billionaire (and Caltagirone does not intend to make small fish again in a large pond, rather it wants to have its say in the board of Generali).
Yet, those who have met him in these two years think that this is the vision, almost in a dreamlike sense, of the magnate: to write his name in history not only as the creator of EssiLux but as the architect of the largest Italian financial operation ever. A COMPLICATED INHERITANCE
Those who met him also say that Del Vecchio and Milleri are in great harmony, so much so that the manager finishes the sentences of the patron. Whether the Generali operation goes through, or whether the market chooses the Nagel-Donnet front, no one yet knows who should lead the first insurance group according to the newborn consultation pact. Much less is there clarity about who will lead the empire of the Del Vecchio family when the founder does not want to or will no longer be able to do so. And this is one of the main reasons for the distrust of funds and investors.
Probably it does not affect, at least not immediately, one of the six children, with three different women and each of whom has a 12.5% stake in Delfin (his wife manages the 25% that Del Vecchio senior has reserved for himself). For now, decisions must be taken by 88% of the shares, forcing everyone to be in full harmony. Major Claudio (64 years old) has recently sold the activities of Brooks Brothers, the historic brand on the American East Coast that he had relaunched before witnessing a new crisis. Marisa and Paola took different paths. The young Leonardo Maria(26), the only son of Nicoletta Zampillo, and the first to join the board of directors of Luxottica, contradicting his father’s motto, “the children must stay out of the company because they cannot be fired”. He recently married Anna Castellini Baldissera – great-granddaughter of Vincenzo Maranghi (the cases of life) and daughter of the Ramazzotti heirs (those of the amaro) – but he is still too inexperienced to be presented to the market as the new helmsman. Luca and Clemente , children of the second partner Sabrina Grassi, are even younger.
The father may have given instructions as to who will take his place in his will
It is not clear. If it were Milleri, it would not be easy to lead without a significant stake in Delfin. In 2019 Leonardo Del Vecchio moved his residence from the Principality of Monaco – where he spent half of the year since 2010, between a splendid villa and a yacht wired to always be connected – to Luxembourg, like his holding company. Which, in spite of the rumors circulated this summer to trim down the criticism of the Italianity of the group, is still in the Grand Duchy and enjoys the favorable tax regime.
Private international law provides that the law of the deceased’s place of residence applies to a succession. In Luxembourg, as in Italy, there is a legitimate share, which reserves 75% of the estate for children (if there are more than three). Unlike our legal system, by law the spouses are entitled only to usufruct on the common home. The remaining 25% goes to the wife or husband only if the deceased has not provided otherwise.
The example of the Agnelli teaches that inheritance issues, even with the best lawyers and the renunciations expressed by some protagonists, can drag on for decades. And in the case of the generational leap between Gianni Agnelli and John Elkann, the future of Fiat had been designed by mutual agreement between the lawyer, his advisers Franzo Grande Stevens and Gianluigi Gabetti , his wife Marella Caracciolo and nephews John , Lapo and Ginevra . With the fundamental contribution of Sergio Marchionne , who guaranteed that there was still a company (and in excellent health) when John’s turn came.
In the dynasty of eyewear it does not seem to see a design as clear, nor as protagonists as ready to lead a process that will make your wrists tremble. We will know something before the fateful General Assembly
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HUBERT SAGNIERES
LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO
FRANCESCO MILLERI AT LUXOTTICA
LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO PRESIDENT LUXOTTICA
LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO
LUXOTTICA
PAOLA BARALE LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO
DEL
VECCHIO
NIGHT
LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO
LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO LUXOTTICA MARISA DEL VECCHIO DAUGHTER
CLAUDIO DEL VECCHIO BROOKS BROTHERS LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO LUXOTTICA
LEONARDO DEL VECCHIO
GILBERTO BENETTON
LUCIANO BENETTON LEONARDO DEL VECCHIA
Leonardo Del Vecchio
PAOLA
