Here is a sketch of the potential buyers of the Armani Group

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) Lvmh, L'Oreal or Essilorluxottica are the names of the groups indicated by Giorgio Armani, in his will, as potential buyers of the fashion maison created by the stylist, although other companies are not excluded, provided they operate in the fashion and luxury world and are of equal standing to the three subjects indicated. In any case, the fashion designer has also envisaged a possible plan B, i.e. listing on the stock exchange. In any case, the Armani Foundation will oversee the company, with a shareholding that will remain around 30%. The stylist, in his latest will, has in fact indicated that the founding principles will have to be respected, as well as style, ethics and management, which will have to focus on reinvesting profits and on a focus on finance aimed at keeping debts at zero. But who are the groups that are likely to buy Giorgio Armani, a company that just this year celebrates its 50th anniversary and has a turnover in excess of EUR 2 billion? To be exact, it ended 2024 with revenues of 2.3 billion and a pre-tax profit of 74.5 million. At the end of the year, it also boasted liquid assets of 569.7 million.

Analysing in detail Lvmh, mentioned in the will, is the world's largest company in the luxury sector, created by Bernard Arnault and listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. It has a turnover of over 80 billion euros (it ended 2024 with 84.7 billion in revenues). Armani also thought of L'Oreal, the French cosmetics leader (43.48 billion revenues in 2024 ), also listed in Paris, or the Italian-French eyewear group Essilor-Luxottica (26.5 billion in revenues last year), also listed in the French capital.

In particular with L'Oreal and Essilux Armani has established solid and long-standing partnerships. With L'Oreal, the relationship has been going on since as far back as 1988, when the company began producing the fashion house's perfumes and later its cosmetics products, all of which have become successful items. Just to cite one example, the 'Acqua di Giò' perfume is one of the best-selling in the world. In 2018, moreover, the cosmetics giant and Giorgio Armani announced that they had signed an agreement for the renewal of the licence until 2050, with the aim of developing and marketing the maison's high-end perfume, cream and make-up lines. Numbers in hand, the previous year in 2017 L'Oréal products linked to the Armani licence generated more than €1 billion in turnover, out of a total of €26 billion in group sales.

The relationship with Essilorluxottica is also long-standing, although it has not been linear. The first collaboration between Armani and Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio began in 1988, when Armani signed the company's first eyewear licensing agreement. In the beginning, the partnership was so strong that Armani bought 5% of Luxottica itself. In 2002, however, the break-up was announced: Armani decided to terminate the partnership in favour of Vittorio Tabacchi's Safilo for the production of his own eyewear. In 2011, however, Armani announced that when the agreement expired in 2012 he would return to entrust his eyewear to his old ally Luxottica. The Armani-Essilux axis, by the way, is still in place with the licence being renewed in September 2022, a few months after the death of the Agordo-based group's founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio. Three years ago, moreover, Armani was keen to emphasise that "the relationship with EssilorLuxottica has been a pivotal point of my path, born of personal and professional esteem, which has led to choices of great entrepreneurial audacity. This renewal, so important, is the confirmation of a mutual loyalty that makes me proud and will lead to further important innovations'. At the time, Essilux CEO Francesco Milleri also commented: 'We are extremely proud of the path we have shared with the Armani group and the deep understanding that unites us. Leonardo Del Vecchio has found in Giorgio Armani an entrepreneur with the same passion for quality and innovation and we are happy to continue the journey that the two founders started together".

Armani, among other things, also supported the merger between Luxottica and Essilor in 2018, bringing his own shares in Luxottica to the operation, which at the time were around 4.6% of the Agordo-based company's capital. The share became the stake of just over 2% in Essilorluxottica, which is now worth around 2.5 billion and whose transfer to the heirs (40% to Pantaleo Dell'Orco, and 60% to family members) was provided for in the will.