Corporate and M&A – Page 5
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ArticleParis Miki to invest €50m in 3-year turnaround plan
Paris Miki revenues inched up to 44.1 billion Japanese yen (€308m) in its fiscal year ended in March 2022, a 0.5 percent increase compared to the previous year. It is only the second time in the last decade that the retailer saw its sales go up year-on-year as the group’s ...
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ArticleKering Eyewear sets €2bn annual revenue target
As part of its capital markets day last week, French luxury group Kering presented an update on the business of Kering Eyewear, announcing a midterm revenue target of €2 billion per year, compared to €706 million in 2021, and an EBIT margin of over 15 percent. The group also shared ...
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ArticleLenskart starts a $100 m fund for DTC eyewear brands
Lenskart, the Indian omnichannel retailer and eyewear manufacturer, has created a $100 million fund dedicated to investments in direct-to-consumer (DTC) eyewear brands as the company believes that the market is now “ripe for a tech-enabled global transformation”. Drawing a comparison with other sectors that have been deeply transformed by e-commerce ...
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ArticleNew HOYA CEO presents group’s roadmap
During the presentation of HOYA’s annual results last month, Eiichiro Ikeda, who was appointed as CEO at the start of the year, delivered an update on the group’s roadmap and main management challenges for the years ahead. After having taken a look back at the HOYA’s 80-year history and reaffirmed ...
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ArticleRodenstock adds M&A to technology in growth mix
“We are targeting to outgrow the optical market by two to three times with organic growth, but we are also looking at possible acquisitions to enter new markets,” Anders Hedegaard, CEO of the Rodenstock Group, told us as we were concluding our interview a few days ago, right after the ...
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ArticleRodenstock acquires Indo
The Rodenstock Group has announced that it was acquiring the Spanish lens manufacturer Indo Optical to further accelerate its regional expansion and gain market share. The acquisition is conditioned to the usual regulatory approvals but is expected to go through and be completed in Q3 2022. The Munich-based company, which ...
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ArticleOut Of to accelerate optical distribution
Out Of has signed a sponsorship deal with Paolo Bettini, the former professional cyclist, who was Olympic champion at the 2004 games in Athens and back-to-back world champion in 2006 and 2007. Bettini will be wearing the brand’s eyewear throughout the 2022 season. The Italian start-up was founded by two ...
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ArticleBausch + Lomb sees 5% organic sales growth in Q1 as IPO wraps up
Bausch Health sold 35 million common Bausch + Lomb shares, or a 10.0 percent stake, at a price of $18.00 per share, in an initial public offering yielding gross proceeds of $630 million and valuing its subsidiary at about $6,300 million. Joseph Papa, chairman of Bausch Health and CEO of ...
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ArticleLentesplus raises $9m for development in LATAM
Lentesplus, a Bogota-based company specializing in online retail of contact lenses, raised $9 million last month in order to further expand its footprint in Latin America as well as to accelerate its transition to a vertically-integrated omnichannel business model and to develop its eyeglasses’ catalog. Founded seven years ago by ...
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ArticleLens maker Shamir invests in eye tracker Blink
Shamir Optical, manufacturer of progressive and single-vision lenses and molds, is purchasing a stake in Blink Technologies, a company headquartered in the tech-rich city of Palo Alto, California, and whose chief product is software that tracks eye movements across screens and makes it possible to use such movements to perform ...
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ArticleEssilux wraps up GrandVision buy-out, changes top management
EssilorLuxottica announced on April 14 the successful completion of its public offer for the GrandVision shares that it did not own yet and the buy-out of the retail group’s remaining shareholders. The Italo-French industry giant now holds 100 percent of GrandVision shares. The finalization of the takeover comes almost three ...
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ArticleEssilorLuxottica to acquire Fedon
Taking another step forward in its vertical integration, EssilorLuxottica has announced its intention to acquire 90.9 percent of the share capital of Giorgio Fedon & Figli, the Italian supplier of eyewear cases and leather goods. The new investment by the Italo-French group is reminiscent of the take-over of Barberini in ...
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ArticleChristopher Cloos swaps shares for ads with U.S. media group
Christopher Cloos, a Danish-based brand of sunglasses and prescription eyewear, has signed an unusual share deal with a360 Media, a U.S. publisher of magazines and websites focusing on celebrities’ news and health and fitness. The eyewear company has agreed to sell 9 percent of its shares to the media house ...
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ArticleKRYS GROUP announces €50 million investment plan
The KRYS GROUP reported a 18.5 percent year-on-year increase in network sales of optical products and hearing aids to a total of €1,199 million, including VAT, for 2021. As compared to the pre-Covid 2019 reference year, stores sales were up by 7.8 percent. The hearing-aids Krys Audition unit saw its ...
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ArticleKering Eyewear to acquire Maui Jim
Kering Eyewear is acquiring Maui Jim, the world’s largest independent brand of high-end sunglasses. The deal is subject to approval by regulators but should be complete by the second half of 2022. Speaking at a press conference this morning, Kering Eyewear’s president and CEO, Roberto Vedovotto, did not wish to ...
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ArticleEssilux closes an acquisition and a divestiture
EssilorLuxottica has recently closed two deals. One is the acquisition of Walman Optical, a network of laboratories operating in the U.S. The other is Vision Group’s acquisition in Italy, from the recently fused Essilux and GrandVision, of VistaSì’s brand and 99 stores and of 75 GrandVision stores. Terms for the ...
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ArticleNetlens.com to be acquired by a multi-segment e-commerce platform
According to the Swedish trade publication Dagens industri, the assets of Netlens.com, an e-retailer of contact lenses and other products sold in pharmacies, are being acquired by Footway Group, the international operator of eight web stores in 24 markets. They are Caliroots, Solestory, Heppo, Brandosa, Belapadel, Runforest, Sportamore (acquired in ...
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ArticleAlain Afflelou family holding doubles its stake in the group
The Afflelou group announced at the end of last month that Alain Afflelou’s family holding acquired in December 2021 the company stake that was indirectly held by Apax France. Earlier in January, Altamir, a partner company of Apax, had announced that it had sold its shares in the group for ...
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Article1-800 Contacts puts new vision tech company into orbit
1-800 Contacts, the U.S. direct-to-consumer contact lens company, has announced the creation of a new company focused on providing technologies and services to third parties in the vision sector. The new entity, called Luna Solutions, operates as a separate company held under a common holding company with 1-800 Contacts. The ...
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ArticleMicrooled is planning an IPO
Microoled, producer of micro-displays, is planning an IPO on the Euronext Growth Paris market. The company announced on Jan. 11 that its registration document had been approved by the AMF, France’s financial markets authority. As we have reported – in a story on one of its clients, the French producer ...
