Essilor-Luxottica conglomerate will hire new General Manager

On Monday, Essilor's CEO Hubert Sagnières indicated that the future Essilor-Luxottica conglomerate, generated by the merger between the world number one in ophthalmic optics and the eyewear frames giant, will be led by a new General Manager.

"We will hire a top-level general manager,"Hubert Sagnières told the Financial Times, adding that, at the age of 62, he is "too old" to run for this post. Sagnières did not give any specific dates, saying that the handover could take place within "two, three or five years, but also in six months."

In the meantime, the Essilor-Luxottica group will be jointly managed by Hubert Sagnières and Leonardo Del Vecchio, the founder of Luxottica. The latter will be tasked with recruiting the future general manager, who will lead the new optics giant born from the merger of French corporation Essilor and Italian mega group Luxottica.

The proposed merger still needs to be approved by the European Commission, which is currently looking into the deal and will make a ruling at the latest by 8th March. If the Commission gives the go-ahead, the new conglomerate will have a stock market capitalisation of €50 billion, and an annual revenue of €16 billion. The Canadian Competition Bureau gave its approval at the end of November.