The Del Vecchio dynasty at war: a €47 billion fortune paralysed by family feuds

MILAN — Even the rich fall out. And when the people at war are the eight heirs of Leonardo Del Vecchio, the dispute does not remain confined to the many lavishly appointed rooms of a billionaire family. It spills into Luxembourg, home to the family holding company Delfin; passes through Milan, where law firms are racking up eye-watering fees; reaches Paris, where EssilorLuxottica is listed; and reverberates through Italian finance. That is because the family vault contains far more than an eyewear empire. It also holds substantial stakes in Generali, Monte dei Paschi and UniCredit. A sizeable chunk of Italian capitalism, which now seems insufficient to hold together competing ambitions, mutual suspicions, financial calculations and a few decidedly larger-than-life personalities. Leonardo Del Vecchio, the founder who died in June 2022, had envisaged an orderly, almost rigid succession: eight identical stakes divided among his six children, his widow Nicoletta Zampillo and her son Rocco Basilico. But when everyone has an equal share, no one is in charge. And when the company’s articles of association require 88% of the votes for extraordinary decisions, a single dissenting voice is enough to bring everything to a halt. Delfin has thus become a multibillion-euro apartment block in which nobody can truly settle in, let alone take charge, because the front door can only be opened with eight keys. Meanwhile, power remains with the board and Francesco Milleri, the man Del Vecchio entrusted with running the group. Billions on paper, but little cash to spend First, the figures, to understand what is at stake. Delfin owns 32.4% of EssilorLuxottica, 17.6% of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), which it has committed to tendering into Intesa Sanpaolo’s offer, leaving it with a stake of around 4% in the latter, just over 10% of Generali and more than 2% of UniCredit. A valuation carried out this summer put the holding company’s net assets at €47.3 billion. Each 12.5% stake is therefore worth almost €6 billion on paper. On paper, that is. The shares cannot even be pledged as collateral without everyone’s consent, while dividends are capped at 10% of profits because siblings Luca, Paola and Clemente oppose any larger payout. Billionaires short of cash. But the figures swirling around the heirs themselves are equally revealing. The latest move — though will it really be the last? — came from the flamboyant Leonardo Maria: an offer to buy out the other shareholders, or at least most of them. A complete U-turn after a journey that has been anything but smooth. A family battle of broken deals and billion-euro demands Here is an attempt to recap the story so far. At the beginning of the year, Leonardo Maria wants to buy Luca and Paola’s stakes. They demand €6.5 billion each. At the end of April, a binding agreement is signed for €5 billion apiece, but the banks insist that Delfin provide a financial safety net. The holding company’s board refuses. Meanwhile, Rocco wants to sell 0.4% of the company, partly to pay inheritance taxes. Leonardo Maria would like to acquire his brother’s entire stake — both are Nicoletta’s sons — but disputes the asking price. Rocco challenges the resolution concerning Leonardo Maria’s purchase of shares from the other siblings and proposes selling everything except the eyewear business to pay off those who want to leave. Leonardo Maria’s entourage responds with a firm rejection. In September, Luca and Paola demand €500 million in penalties over the collapsed sale. Just two weeks ago, Leonardo Maria appears to be considering a retreat, selling his own 12.5% stake back to the holding company. Then he announces: “Enough of these fratricidal wars.” Meanwhile, Czech tycoon Michal Strnad bursts onto the scene, offering €30 billion for the whole of Delfin. It sounds like a Turkish soap opera. Instead, it is an entirely home-grown tale of Italian dynastic capitalism. Leonardo Maria, the heir determined to break the mould Born in 1995 and armed with a bachelor's degree from Bocconi University, Leonardo Maria is the heir who wants to shake up the established order. At EssilorLuxottica, he was the only one of Del Vecchio’s children to hold an operational role, until he stormed out in August. Outside the group, through his personal holding company Lmdv Capital, he has embarked on a frantic acquisition spree: Acqua Fiuggi, Flavio Briatore’s Twiga beach club, restaurants, a 30% stake in Il Giornale, control of Quotidiano Nazionale and, finally, a takeover bid for Il Fatto Quotidiano that was over almost as soon as it began. The bill so far amounts to roughly €1 billion in bank debt. The rest belongs to the gossip pages, and often makes for entertaining reading: a whirlwind marriage, relationships that ended badly, and an investigation into a Ferrari accident in which someone else was behind the wheel when the police arrived. Rocco, four years his senior, seems almost tailor-made to play his rival. Del Vecchio included him in his will on an equal footing with his own children. Within the group, Rocco worked on the smart glasses developed with Meta, before deciding to leave as well. He now lives in Los Angeles. Caught between the two rivals is Nicoletta, mother to both and twice married to the founder. The other heirs, from New York to London Claudio, the eldest son, represents the American branch of the family. Sent to the United States in the 1980s, he later owned Brooks Brothers until its bankruptcy in 2020. Along with his sister Marisa, the most private of the heirs, he is regarded as favouring continuity in the group’s management. Paola, daughter of Del Vecchio’s first marriage to Luciana Nervo, is the most outspoken critic. Like Luca, the son of Sabina Grossi, who works in finance in London, she has transferred her stake into a personal company. Together with Rocco, she is calling for the abolition of the 88% voting requirement. The youngest heir is now the biggest shareholder Last but not least, Clemente. At 22, he is an engineering student at the Polytechnic University. In 2023, Forbes crowned him the world’s youngest billionaire. Despite Leonardo Maria’s relentless activity, it is Clemente who is now Delfin’s largest shareholder. In July, he bought approximately €800,000 worth of Delfin shares from Rocco — the price of a cup of coffee in the Del Vecchio household. Yet that was enough to push his holding just above the 12.5% owned by each of the others. The rest will unfold in the next episodes. And there will certainly be plenty more to come. This article was reviewed by an external translation partner