Staff Report
Michal Strnad, the Czech billionaire who built his fortune running defense contractor Czechoslovak Group, has offered roughly €30 billion, about $33.6 billion, to acquire Delfin, the Del Vecchio family’s investment vehicle and the controlling shareholder behind eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, according to a letter reviewed by Bloomberg.
The target of the offer isn’t EssilorLuxottica directly but the holding company that controls a 32.4% stake in it. Delfin, based in Luxembourg, was built by the late Leonardo Del Vecchio, the founder whose eyewear empire eventually absorbed Ray-Ban and Oakley into the Franco-Italian giant EssilorLuxottica, and the firm remains the family’s primary vehicle for managing that ownership stake.
Delfin’s holdings extend well beyond eyewear. Alongside its EssilorLuxottica position, the firm holds stakes in Italian insurer Generali and lenders Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UniCredit, a combined portfolio Bloomberg estimates at roughly €43 billion in current market value, meaning Strnad’s offer would hand him exposure not just to Ray-Ban and Oakley but to a meaningful slice of Italy’s financial sector as well.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, one of the late founder's six children, confirmed he had recently been informed of an offer from a foreign investor, with Italian outlet Il Domani publishing a copy of a letter dated 20 October laying out the terms. The confirmation came from within the family rather than from Strnad's side, suggesting the approach is still in its early, exploratory stages rather than a formal, agreed transaction.
Strnad himself is no stranger to large, strategically significant acquisitions. He built Czechoslovak Group into a major European defense contractor and ranks as the Czech Republic's second-richest person, with a net worth estimated at $17.5 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a fortune built almost entirely outside the consumer or financial sectors Delfin's holdings would bring him into.
That gap between Strnad's defense-industry background and Delfin's eyewear-and-banking portfolio is part of what makes the bid notable. A deal of this size would represent a dramatic diversification for Strnad, moving him from arms manufacturing into controlling interests in global eyewear brands and major Italian financial institutions in a single transaction, assuming the Del Vecchio family is willing to entertain a sale of the holding company their father built.
