Michal Strnad offers about €30bn for Delfin, the Del Vecchio family holding company
A letter dated 20 October offers to buy all or a controlling 62.5% of Delfin at a reported 30% discount to net asset value. Any deal needs all eight heirs, and one has already said no. What the bid shows about a holding company split into equal shares.
On 29 October 2026, the Italian daily Domani reported that the Czech industrialist Michal Strnad had offered to buy Delfin, the Luxembourg holding company of the late Leonardo Del Vecchio’s family. Bloomberg, which also saw the letter, put the cash offer at about €30bn. The letter is dated 20 October, was addressed to Delfin’s chief executive, Romolo Bardin, and is valid for 30 days.
The terms
According to Bloomberg, the offer covers the whole of Delfin, but Strnad would accept a controlling stake of at least 62.5% if some owners wished to stay in. Bloomberg and Teleborsa both report that the price implies a discount of around 30% to net asset value. Strnad wrote that the offer is fully funded and needs no further financing.
Delfin is the largest shareholder in EssilorLuxottica, with 32.4%, and holds about 17.5% of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, around 10% of Generali and roughly 2.7% of UniCredit, according to Forbes Italia and Teleborsa. Bloomberg values its listed holdings at more than €40bn. Teleborsa notes that a change of control at Delfin could in turn require a bid for EssilorLuxottica itself.
Delfin declined to comment. A spokesman for Akipia, Strnad’s investment group, told Forbes Italia that it does not comment on market speculation or possible negotiations.
Eight equal owners
Since Del Vecchio’s death in 2022, Delfin has been owned in eight equal stakes of 12.5%: his six children, his widow Nicoletta Zampillo and her son Rocco Basilico. Bloomberg reports that changing the ownership restrictions in Delfin’s rules needs the approval of all eight, and that the heirs have been in dispute in court and with the managers Del Vecchio chose to run the holding.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, one of the heirs, confirmed he had been told of the offer and opposes it. “My father’s life work must remain an asset for Italy,” he said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg. In a longer statement carried by Forbes Italia, he asked that the origin and structure of the funds be open to full review by the authorities. Bloomberg also reports that his recent €3.5bn offer for Basilico’s stake was rejected.
Strnad’s letter refers to reports that Delfin’s management is arranging finance to buy back up to 25% of the company from two family members. He presents his bid as compatible with that plan and as a possible route to settling the disputes.
The bidder
Strnad, 34, controls the defence group CSG, which his father transferred to him in 2018. When CSG listed earlier this year, he said the €2.55bn he received would go to his family office for investment outside defence, Bloomberg reports. In July, Lumina Crown, a vehicle he founded, bought 14% of Pirelli from Sinochem for about €987m, according to Forbes Italia.
What it means for family holding companies
Del Vecchio’s structure was built to keep Delfin intact, and it has done that: a unanimity requirement among eight equal owners makes a sale hard to force, including this one. The same rules have left individual heirs with no easy way out, which is why buy-backs, sibling offers and now an outside bid at a 30% discount are all on the table at once. For families designing a holding company today, the case shows the cost of equal shares without an agreed exit mechanism, such as a pre-set buy-back formula or a valuation method for departing members. A bid from another family office at a discount to net assets is what that missing exit route can look like.
Sources: Domani, 29 October 2026; Bloomberg, 30 October 2026 (republished by The Edge Malaysia); Forbes Italia, 30 October 2026; Teleborsa, 30 October 2026.