Four shareholders in Delfin, the Luxembourg holding company that controls the fortune of the late Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio, have rejected an offer from fellow shareholder Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio to buy their stakes, Italian news agencies reported on Monday.
In a letter, the four shareholders said they were not interested in considering or discussing the proposed transaction, AGI newswire reported, citing financial sources. The four are Clemente Del Vecchio, Rocco Basilico, Luca Del Vecchio and Paola Del Vecchio.
The rejection is the latest turn in a long-running dispute among the heirs over the future of Delfin, which is divided equally among eight heirs, each holding 12.5 per cent. Leonardo Del Vecchio, who founded Luxottica and built it into the owner of brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley, died in June 2022, and disagreements among his heirs have since stalled decisions about the group’s future.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio had offered to buy out his fellow shareholders after securing financing of up to €22 billion ($24.62 billion) from Citi, according to a letter published by Italian newspaper QN. A person close to the businessman told Reuters on Monday that his goal was to acquire five or six shareholdings, and that the proposal was intended to safeguard the legacy built by his father.
The arithmetic of the latest rejection makes that goal difficult. With four of the eight shareholders now reported to have turned down the offer, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio cannot reach five or six holdings from the remaining shareholders alone, unless one or more of the four changes position. That leaves the holding company facing the same deadlock that has dogged it since the founder’s death.
The stakes are considerable. Delfin is the largest shareholder in EssilorLuxottica, the Franco-Italian eyewear group behind Ray-Ban, with a 32.4 per cent stake. It also owns a 10 per cent stake in Italian insurer Generali, a 17.5 per cent stake in Italian lender Monte dei Paschi and a small stake in UniCredit, for a combined current market value of around €43 billion.
The internal buyout attempt comes after a €30 billion bid last week for Delfin by Czech businessman Michal Strnad. A sale of Delfin would require a virtually unanimous decision by the heirs, according to earlier Reuters reporting, a hurdle that has already proved difficult to clear as the family has taken increasingly different positions over the holding company’s future.
For now, the reported rejection leaves control of one of Europe’s most valuable family holdings unresolved. The dispute matters beyond the family itself, because Delfin’s holdings give it influence over EssilorLuxottica and several of Italy’s most strategically important financial institutions, and because the equal ownership structure means no single heir can impose a settlement on the others.
Note: the featured image is a file photo of sunglasses, not a photograph of Delfin, its shareholders or Monday’s reported letter.
Sources: Reuters, “Four Delfin shareholders rebuff Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio’s buyout offer, reports say”, 3 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/four-delfin-shareholders-rebuff-leonardo-maria-del-vecchios-buyout-offer-reports-2026-11-03/
