Latest Headlines – Page 196
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Hal Will Control Grandvision
As we had previously anticipated, the founders and managers of GrandVision reached an agreement with HAL Trust last Tuesday morning that should give the latter a controlling interest in the large French-based optical retailing company. If completed, the deal will allow Pearle Europe to enter France and the UK, the ...
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Grandvision Improves Its Margins
GrandVision raised its net earnings after minority interests by 2.8 percent last year to €22,625,000, while revenues rose by only 0.2 percent to $603.6 million, due in part to the strong euro. The gross operating profit (Ebitda) increased by 6.4 percent to €93,512,000, thus reaching a margin of 15.5 percent. ...
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Luxottica's Improved Bid For Cole National Has Been Deemed As Friendly
There is still a chance that HAL Trust, the biggest shareholder in this large American optical retail chain with a stake of about 20 percent, will propose a higher price per share than the $22.50 offered by Luxottica last month. Our guess is that HAL will refrain from a counter-bid ...
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Luxottica Reports Disappointing Results But Hopes To Do Better
Luxottica's net income declined last year by 28.1 percent to €267.3 million, but it would have been €65 million higher than that without the 16.4 percent devaluation of the dollar against the euro. The group's chairman, Leonardo Del Vecchio, is budgeting a 15 percent profit increase for 2004 in constant ...
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De Rigo Reports A Sales Drop Of 1.5%
In terms of local currencies, De Rigo's sales increased by 3.5 percent last year, with a 1.9 percent drop in wholesale revenues compensated by a 7.0 percent increase in retail revenues. In its accounts in euros, the Italian company reports a 1.5 decline in consolidated revenues to €504.8 million, with ...
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Airess Goes Into Liquidation
Dunhill, Escada, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Morgan and other licensors of the French group will be free now to look for new eyewear licensees or contractors, buying up millions of euros worth of inventories at relatively low prices in the liquidation proceedings. The French bankruptcy court handling Airess' liquidation is also putting ...
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Essilor Had More Profits Than Expected
The final 2003 results of Essilor International will only come out on March 4, yet the management indicates that they will show an operating margin close to 17 percent instead of the previously anticipated level of 16 percent. Strong sales in Germany and the USA lifted the group's revenues in ...
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Hoya Posts A Higher Operating Margin In The Third Quarter
The euro appreciated by 6.1 percent against the Japanese yen in the quarter ended Dec. 31, and while the US dollar declined instead by 11.0 percent, currencies had a favorable impact on Hoya's results during the period. Like Essilor and other major players, Hoya also reports a major increase in ...
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Bausch & Lomb Raises Profits Sharply
Bausch & Lomb's board of directors has decided a share buyback after two years of solid improvements in net earnings and strong cash flow. The company recorded net income of $125.5 million in 2003, up sharply from $72.5 million in the previous year. Excluding extraordinary items, net income from continuing ...
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Ciba Vision Outperforms The Market
The Swiss parent company, Novartis, is gearing up for a new share repurchase program as well after recording a 6 percent increase in net profit to $5,016 million, equal to 20.2 percent of sales, on a 19 percent increase in revenues to $24.86 billion. Acquisitions, price increases and currency conversions ...
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Opti-münchen Enjoyes A Boom In The Wake Of The German Health Reform
There were many smiling faces at the 3-day Opti-München fair, which ended yesterday in modern new fairgrounds with a 25 percent increase in the number of visitors to 31,344 persons - 31 percent of them foreigners. As of Jan. 1, the German government's social security system is no longer giving ...
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Safilo Cuts Costs To Return To Profits
Safilo is cutting costs everywhere to get back to its former levels of profitability and regain the confidence of its creditors after posting a consolidated net loss of €6,350,000 for the 9 months ended last Sept. 30, as compared to the profit of €19,760,000 of the same period of 2002. ...
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Luxottica's Managers Stand To Obtain Up To 30% Of Its Equity
Commenting on speculation in the Italian press, Luxottica has admitted that it's studying a plan that would allow the management to obtain a higher shareholding in the company. It has stressed, however, that the plan is still in a preliminary phase and that in any case it would not allow ...
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Is Hal Going To Acquire Cole National?
That's one of the latest unconfirmed rumors surrounding the US chain which, as reported, set up a strategic committee last October to evaluate possible alternatives to the takeover proposal made by another company, said to be Luxottica. In a recent newspaper interview, Leonardo Del Vecchio, Luxottica's chairman, refused to comment ...
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Grandvision Had An Encouraging Sales Spurt In The 4th Quarter
The 2003 financial results of GrandVision, which ended up the year with a total of 390 stores, have not yet been disclosed, but the management of the French-based retail group indicates that its profitability improved in 2003 both in absolute terms and as a percentage of sales. A sharp uptick ...
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Optic 2000 Has Big Plans For Lissac
Optic 2000 and Lissac, which completed their cross-shareholding agreement just before Christmas, are looking at the establishment of network of more than 1,400 optical stores in France by 2006, with retail sales of over €800 million a year. The Optic 2000 cooperative itself would reach by then revenues of more ...
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Afflelou Grows Faster Than Expected
Europe's largest chain of franchised optical stores, which took over Optique Carrefour last year, raised its revenues on a comparable basis by 10.3 percent to €58.2 million in the 1st half ended last Oct. 31. Its net income rose by 8.8 percent to €11.1 million, in spite of high interest ...
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De Rigo Launches Mini Sunglasses, Consolidates European Sales
The new line of MINI branded sunglasses will be developed by De Rigo in close cooperation with the design department responsible for the recently re-styled British icon car as part of a new exclusive 2-year licensing agreement with the BMW Group. It will be sold in each of the 80-plus ...
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Coopervision Raises Its Market Shares
CooperVision claims that its share of the global soft contact lens market, estimated at $3.4 billion annually, has doubled from 5 to over 10 percent over the last 3 years, thanks to organic growth and to the company's takeover of Biocompatibles in March of 2002. In the USA, which represents ...
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Sola Completes Its Refinancing
SOLA International has successfully completed a previously announced tender offer that has allowed it to redeem €185.0 million worth of 11 percent bonds, which were going to mature in March of 2008, for a total consideration of about €214.5 million or $252.0 million. The tender was financed in part by ...
