Table of Contents
A feud inside the family behind Ray-Ban is threatening the investment plans of Delfin Sarl, the Luxembourg holding company that controls the €45 billion ($50.4 billion) fortune of the late Leonardo Del Vecchio, including its stake in Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, one of the founder's eight heirs and a holder of 12.5% of Delfin, has become a scathing critic of the holding company's leadership. He has called on Delfin chairman Francesco Milleri to focus on his job as chief executive of EssilorLuxottica SA, the eyewear giant that owns Ray-Ban and is Delfin's largest asset.
Delfin owns about 32.4% of EssilorLuxottica, about 10% of Generali, more than 17% of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA and 2.7% of UniCredit SpA. The open dispute now threatens the family's ambitions for its investment in Generali, Italy's largest insurer.
A widening rift
The split has been building for months. In August, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio quit as chairman of Ray-Ban and as chief strategy officer of EssilorLuxottica, leaving no member of the family in a management role at the company. In a letter to the board, he described its management style as "distant" and "impersonal."
He had earlier tried to buy the Delfin shares held by his siblings Luca and Paola, a plan the Delfin board blocked over concerns about guarantees. Four Delfin shareholders have since rejected a buyout offer from him.
The infighting has drawn an outside bidder. Michal Strnad, the Czech arms billionaire who controls defense group Czechoslovak Group, made an offer of about €30 billion ($33.6 billion) for Delfin in late October, well below the value of its holdings.
The heir
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, 31, is a son of Leonardo Del Vecchio, who grew up in a Milan orphanage, founded Luxottica in 1961 and merged it with French lens maker Essilor in 2018. The founder died in June 2022, leaving Delfin split equally among eight heirs, his widow, six children and a stepson.
The younger Del Vecchio runs LMDV Capital, his family office, which has invested in hospitality, real estate and media. Forbes counts each of the heirs among the world's billionaires.
Figures were converted at €1 to $1.12.
The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy.
Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story — the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else.
Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches.
→ Executive ($25/mo): Daily newsletter + Deep-Dive Reports
→ Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings
Subscribe now
