Luxottica Group SpA (ADR) (NYSE: LUX)
shares are up 8.4 percent on Tuesday after the company announced a nearly $49 billion merger
with Essilor International SA (OTC: ESLOY).
The Merger
The combined
company will now have more than 140,000 employees in upward of 150 countries. The two companies generated a combined $16
billion in revenue in 2016.
Investors of both companies are cheering the merger news, as the new entity will certainly have a dominant position in the
global eyewear market.
Prior to the merger, Luxottica and Essilor were already the two largest companies in the eyewear space.
Luxottica's Brands
Luxottica owns each of the following popular eyewear brands:
- LensCrafters.
- Sunglass Hut.
- Pearle Vision.
- Sears Optical.
- Target Optical.
- Eyemed.
- Glasses.com.
- Ray-Ban.
- Persol.
- Oakley.
In addition, Luxottica also manufactures eyewear under license for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada and Giorgio Armani.
Essilor is the world’s leading manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses.
The combined company will
represent roughly 27 percent of global eyewear market share. The next largest competition is Johnson & Johnson
(NYSE: JNJ)’s modest 3.9 percent share.
The global eyewear market is expected to grow from $90.3 billion in 2013 to more than $142 billion by 2020.
While Essilor is French and Luxottica is Italian, more than half of the combined company’s revenue will come from the United
States.
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