07.20.22
Rank: #12 (Last year: #14)
€10.40 Billion ($11.78 Billion)
Prior Fiscal: €8.48 Billion
Percentage Change: +25.1%
R&D Expenditure: €321M (total)
Best FY21 Quarter: Q2 €2.73B
Latest Quarter: Q1 €2.78B
No. of Employees: 180,000 (total)
Global Headquarters: Charenton-le-Pont, France
KEY EXECUTIVES:
Leonardo Del Vecchio, Chairman
Francesco Milleri, CEO
Paul du Saillant, Deputy CEO
Margot Bard, Directors Representing Employees
While M&A dealings can take some time from initial announcement to the transaction’s close, it’s not typically years. That’s been the case, however, for EssilorLuxottica’s €7.3 billion ($8.7 billion) acquisition of GrandVision, a global retailer of optical solutions. The purchase was initiated in July 2019, but faced a number of hurdles along the way.
EssilorLuxottica offered a legal argument that GrandVision made several decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic that could provide an “out” for the former firm to cancel its proposed takeover. A Dutch arbitration court agreed with that assessment and its ruling gave EssilorLuxottica the freedom to walk away from the deal, if it chose.
The company, however, decided to stick with the agreement and move forward with the transaction. “After assessing all our options, we have made the decision to proceed with the completion of the deal without further delay. The strategic rationale of the transaction remains strong and unchanged, and after two years of efforts and relentless work, we are now ready to turn a page and start a new chapter of EssilorLuxottica’s history, with GrandVision,” explained Francesco Milleri and Paul du Saillant, respectively CEO and deputy CEO of EssilorLuxottica, via a company statement.
On July 1, 2021, a few days after that announcement, EssilorLuxottica closed on a deal for 76.72% ownership interest in GrandVision (acquired from HAL Optical Investments). The price was the same as the agreement from 2019, which was €28.42 per share.
Concurrent to the legal proceedings between the two organizations, in March 2021, it was announced the European Commission had given the green light for the deal to take place. The decision came with a number of conditions, however. Specifically, the GrandOptical chain (35 stores in Belgium) must be sold but the brand name could be retained. Also, 174 stores in Italy would need to be divested—a combination of all EssilorLuxottica’s VistaSì chain and 72 “GrandVision by” store locations. Lastly, 142 EyeWish stores in the Netherlands (as well as the brand name) needed to be sold.
In June 2021, EssilorLuxottica gained the final clearance required (which was from the Turkish Competition Authority) for the transaction to proceed.
After acquiring the majority of shares from the HAL Optical Investments deal, EssilorLuxottica acquired additional shares at the same price in September 2021. Then in October 2021, the firm made a recommended mandatory public offer to all remaining shareholders, which brought EssilorLuxottica’s total stake in GrandVision’s issued share capital to 99.73%. The last trading date of GrandVision shares was on Jan. 7, 2022, and the company was then be delisted on Jan. 10, 2022. With this, GrandVision’s approximately 7,000 international stores and 39,000 employees were absorbed by EssilorLuxottica.
While it was the most significant acquisition during FY21, the GrandVision deal was not the only purchase made by EssilorLuxottica. In February, it partnered with CooperCompanies to form a 50/50 joint venture to acquire SightGlass Vision, a U.S.-based life sciences company focused on developing innovative spectacle lenses to reduce the progression of myopia in children.
A month later, the company entered into an agreement to acquire U.S.-based lab network Walman. Walman provided services to vision care practices around the country for more than 100 years. It had a network of 35 facilities across the U.S., including prescription lens-finishing labs and hubs for optical instruments and other vision care products. As part of EssilorLuxottica, the company would continue to serve the market under the Walman brand.
In another transaction, October saw approval granted from the Competition and Markets Authority in the U.K. for EssilorLuxottica’s purchase of the Lenstec Optical Group shareholding. This was not the first financial investment in the firm, as Essilor acquired a minority share in the company in 2016 through Shamir. The U.K. organization maintains a network of three optical laboratories and offers optical lenses to the country and throughout Europe.
These companies join an organization that saw great gains achieved in 2021 as demand returned following the pandemic’s dip during 2020. Overall, the company celebrated revenues of €21.50 billion during its 2021 fiscal year. That was an almost 25% increase over the previous 12 months. Within the segment that serves as home to the medical device side of the company, Professional Solutions saw just over 25% in a rise year-over-year to finish at €10.4 billion. Meanwhile, the Direct to Consumer portion, which represents the retail aspect of the firm, ballooned by 24% with a final figure of €11.1 billion.
Beyond financial gains achieved via normal consumer spending behavior for all product types following the worst portions of the pandemic, EssilorLuxottica made a number of product-related announcements to help maintain some degree of growth. In September 2021, Meta (formerly Facebook) announced it was launching its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses (in a cooperative effort with the eye-glasses manufacturer). With integrated 5MP cameras, built-in speakers, and a three-microphone audio array, the glasses can be used for answering a phone call or recording video.
At the start of the 2021 fiscal, EssilorLuxottica launched its first joint product offering, combining Ray-Ban frames with prescription sunglass lenses. “Private practices will now have an elevated and differentiated complete pair offering that taps into the deep-rooted passion and love of the Ray-Ban brand through Ray-Ban Authentic Essilor Special Edition,” said Rick Gadd, president of Essilor North America. “This is another way that EssilorLuxottica delivers for independent practitioners to maximize success and provide patients unparalleled style and sight through uncompromising care.”
In July, the organization revealed it would create a smart eyewear innovation hub in France. Leveraging more than 10 years of R&D in this technology segment, the company said it intends to accelerate its initiatives to address consumers’ evolving needs and fully capture the potential of this fast-growing wearables segment. According to the firm, smart eyewear is a complex product category that requires the combination of active lenses and sophisticated frames on the one hand, and electronics, sensors, and software on the other, along with the optical function of a lens.
€10.40 Billion ($11.78 Billion)
Prior Fiscal: €8.48 Billion
Percentage Change: +25.1%
R&D Expenditure: €321M (total)
Best FY21 Quarter: Q2 €2.73B
Latest Quarter: Q1 €2.78B
No. of Employees: 180,000 (total)
Global Headquarters: Charenton-le-Pont, France
KEY EXECUTIVES:
Leonardo Del Vecchio, Chairman
Francesco Milleri, CEO
Paul du Saillant, Deputy CEO
Margot Bard, Directors Representing Employees
While M&A dealings can take some time from initial announcement to the transaction’s close, it’s not typically years. That’s been the case, however, for EssilorLuxottica’s €7.3 billion ($8.7 billion) acquisition of GrandVision, a global retailer of optical solutions. The purchase was initiated in July 2019, but faced a number of hurdles along the way.
EssilorLuxottica offered a legal argument that GrandVision made several decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic that could provide an “out” for the former firm to cancel its proposed takeover. A Dutch arbitration court agreed with that assessment and its ruling gave EssilorLuxottica the freedom to walk away from the deal, if it chose.
The company, however, decided to stick with the agreement and move forward with the transaction. “After assessing all our options, we have made the decision to proceed with the completion of the deal without further delay. The strategic rationale of the transaction remains strong and unchanged, and after two years of efforts and relentless work, we are now ready to turn a page and start a new chapter of EssilorLuxottica’s history, with GrandVision,” explained Francesco Milleri and Paul du Saillant, respectively CEO and deputy CEO of EssilorLuxottica, via a company statement.
On July 1, 2021, a few days after that announcement, EssilorLuxottica closed on a deal for 76.72% ownership interest in GrandVision (acquired from HAL Optical Investments). The price was the same as the agreement from 2019, which was €28.42 per share.
Concurrent to the legal proceedings between the two organizations, in March 2021, it was announced the European Commission had given the green light for the deal to take place. The decision came with a number of conditions, however. Specifically, the GrandOptical chain (35 stores in Belgium) must be sold but the brand name could be retained. Also, 174 stores in Italy would need to be divested—a combination of all EssilorLuxottica’s VistaSì chain and 72 “GrandVision by” store locations. Lastly, 142 EyeWish stores in the Netherlands (as well as the brand name) needed to be sold.
In June 2021, EssilorLuxottica gained the final clearance required (which was from the Turkish Competition Authority) for the transaction to proceed.
After acquiring the majority of shares from the HAL Optical Investments deal, EssilorLuxottica acquired additional shares at the same price in September 2021. Then in October 2021, the firm made a recommended mandatory public offer to all remaining shareholders, which brought EssilorLuxottica’s total stake in GrandVision’s issued share capital to 99.73%. The last trading date of GrandVision shares was on Jan. 7, 2022, and the company was then be delisted on Jan. 10, 2022. With this, GrandVision’s approximately 7,000 international stores and 39,000 employees were absorbed by EssilorLuxottica.
While it was the most significant acquisition during FY21, the GrandVision deal was not the only purchase made by EssilorLuxottica. In February, it partnered with CooperCompanies to form a 50/50 joint venture to acquire SightGlass Vision, a U.S.-based life sciences company focused on developing innovative spectacle lenses to reduce the progression of myopia in children.
A month later, the company entered into an agreement to acquire U.S.-based lab network Walman. Walman provided services to vision care practices around the country for more than 100 years. It had a network of 35 facilities across the U.S., including prescription lens-finishing labs and hubs for optical instruments and other vision care products. As part of EssilorLuxottica, the company would continue to serve the market under the Walman brand.
In another transaction, October saw approval granted from the Competition and Markets Authority in the U.K. for EssilorLuxottica’s purchase of the Lenstec Optical Group shareholding. This was not the first financial investment in the firm, as Essilor acquired a minority share in the company in 2016 through Shamir. The U.K. organization maintains a network of three optical laboratories and offers optical lenses to the country and throughout Europe.
These companies join an organization that saw great gains achieved in 2021 as demand returned following the pandemic’s dip during 2020. Overall, the company celebrated revenues of €21.50 billion during its 2021 fiscal year. That was an almost 25% increase over the previous 12 months. Within the segment that serves as home to the medical device side of the company, Professional Solutions saw just over 25% in a rise year-over-year to finish at €10.4 billion. Meanwhile, the Direct to Consumer portion, which represents the retail aspect of the firm, ballooned by 24% with a final figure of €11.1 billion.
Beyond financial gains achieved via normal consumer spending behavior for all product types following the worst portions of the pandemic, EssilorLuxottica made a number of product-related announcements to help maintain some degree of growth. In September 2021, Meta (formerly Facebook) announced it was launching its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses (in a cooperative effort with the eye-glasses manufacturer). With integrated 5MP cameras, built-in speakers, and a three-microphone audio array, the glasses can be used for answering a phone call or recording video.
At the start of the 2021 fiscal, EssilorLuxottica launched its first joint product offering, combining Ray-Ban frames with prescription sunglass lenses. “Private practices will now have an elevated and differentiated complete pair offering that taps into the deep-rooted passion and love of the Ray-Ban brand through Ray-Ban Authentic Essilor Special Edition,” said Rick Gadd, president of Essilor North America. “This is another way that EssilorLuxottica delivers for independent practitioners to maximize success and provide patients unparalleled style and sight through uncompromising care.”
In July, the organization revealed it would create a smart eyewear innovation hub in France. Leveraging more than 10 years of R&D in this technology segment, the company said it intends to accelerate its initiatives to address consumers’ evolving needs and fully capture the potential of this fast-growing wearables segment. According to the firm, smart eyewear is a complex product category that requires the combination of active lenses and sophisticated frames on the one hand, and electronics, sensors, and software on the other, along with the optical function of a lens.