Delfin, Basilico rejects Lmdv's offer to purchase its 12.5%

MILAN – New gamble by Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio which this time was completely ignored by the counterpart. Almost at the same time as the proposed offer to buy Il Fatto Daily, already rejected by the sender, it became known that Lmdv received another door slammed in its face. The advances of his lawyers towards his partner Rocco Basilico (also the son of Nicoletta Zampillo who married Paolo Basilico in her first marriage) are fake without even a response. His proposal, writes Ansa, was to buy the 12.5% ​​of Delfin in the hands of Rocco, valuing it at 3.5 billion. A figure that presents a 30% discount on the net asset value (Nav) of the Luxembourg financial company, whose shareholdings on the stock market are quoted at around 40 billion.

The proposal, as far as we know, was not taken into consideration for three reasons. First of all, Rocco Basilico has no intention of selling, at least at the moment. Secondly, the price is low, as Rocco indicated at the Delfin meeting, in which he asked to move his stake into a wholly owned company, the value of 4.3 billion. Thirdly, the buyer's reliability is compromised, since Lmdv is already over a billion in debt, has no incoming dividend flows and the banking system does not seem willing to grant it any more credit.

In the spring Lmdv had already tried to purchase the 25% of Delfin that the partners Luca and Paola had agreed to sell for 10 billion, but the operation was canceled due to the refusal of the Delfin board of directors to guarantee the banks the repurchase of 37.5% at the price of 10 billion. Having been burned by this operation which went badly, Lmdv did not even show up at the meeting on 31 June for a meeting with the other shareholders. And then in August he also left all the positions he held in EssilorLuxottica, breaking relations with his mentor Francesco Milleri.

The only thing possible at the moment for Lmdv is to wait until March 31st when it will actually be able to move its Delfin share package into its Lmdv Fin. And at that point go back to the banks that have given him credit so far, in particular Unicredit and Indosuez, trying to negotiate additional loans in exchange for the pledge on the shares of the box that will own 12.5%. A pledge which, however, is illiquid, because it only allows the right to vote but not the ownership of the Delfin shares which, in order to be sold, must receive the consent of all the other 7 shareholders of the holding company.