EssilorLuxottica’s GrandVision acquisition approved

EssilorLuxottica’s acquisition of GrandVision has been approved by the European Commission after its review was impacted by the pandemic.

Clearance was conditional to the divestment of approximately 350 optical retail businesses across Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy.

In Belgium, 35 GrandVision stores would be sold to a buyer who would rebrand and in the Netherlands a total of 142 EyeWish sites would be sold with the brand name.

Conditions stipulated that he merged entity would keep some stores from the EyeWish chain and would have to rebrand under a new name.

In Italy the merged entity would divest 174 stores, including all of EssilorLuxottica’s VistaSi brand and 72 GrandVision By sites.