Corona hits parent company eyewear chains Pearle and Eye Wish | Financial

The chain achieved a turnover of € 3.48 billion, a decrease of more than 12% compared to 2019. GrandVision also posted a net loss of € 45 million and was able to offset part of the loss through online sales that increased by 85%. GrandVision has reduced the number of stores from 7,406 in 2019 to 7,260 last year. The eyewear chain also speaks of an uncertain period now that government measures in various countries, such as France, have been tightened. GrandVision does not want to say anything about the expectations for the rest of the year.

Takeover

GrandVision is also still at odds with EssilorLuxottica, the company behind brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley. The French-Italian eyewear giant made a takeover bid of € 7.2 billion on GrandVision a year ago. With that, a ship with gold seemed to be sailing in for the Rotterdam investor HAL, which still owns more than 76% of the shares. However, the corona crisis threw a spanner in the works.

EssilorLuxottica has made several requests to GrandVision for information about how the company ran during the corona crisis. In August, the preliminary relief judge in Rotterdam put a big line through the claims.

The question is therefore whether things will work out between both companies. The spectacle giants again faced each other at the Amsterdam court last Monday. EssilorLuxoticca now states that GrandVision does not adhere to the purchase contract. The verdict will follow April 6.

GrandVision has announced that it will support EssilorLuxottica with the aim of obtaining regulatory approvals to finalize EssilorLuxottica’s acquisition of investor HAL’s stake in GrandVision. The parent company of Pearle and Eye Wish still assumes that the acquisition will be completed within five months.

“The transaction has so far been unconditionally approved in the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Russia and it is currently under review in the EU, Chile and Turkey,” said GrandVision.

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