Leonardo Del Vecchio |
MILAN—Following a special meeting of its board this evening here,
Luxottica Group S.p.A. (NYSE: LUX; MTA: LUX) announced tonight that the board of directors accepted the resignation of former co-CEO and CFO, Enrico Cavatorta, from the board "following disagreements on the current governance structure." The company said that Roger Abravanel resigned from the board of directors "for the same reasons."
Luxottica chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio takes on the chief executive responsibilities for the interim while the co-CEO of Markets selection process is being finalized, based on a high profile list of candidates.
The appointment of Massimo Vian as co-CEO of Operations and Product will take place together with the appointment of the co-CEO of Markets, the company added.
On Sunday,
as reported by VMail, Luxottica said that it had received Cavatorta's intention to resign, six weeks after he was named named co-CEO of the group in the wake of the departure of Andrea Guerra as CEO and the
announcement of a new management structure. Cavatorta, a 15-year Luxottica executive, most recently general manager and CFO of the Group, was appointed CEO of Corporate Functions on Sept. 1. He was also named as Interim CEO of Markets until a person is named to that new post and the two were to function as co-CEOs.
In its statement tonight, the company "acknowledged the group performance in the third quarter, which shows a strong, free cash flow generation, sales growth in line with the first half of the year at constant exchange rates and an expected increase in net income of approximately 10 percent. Those numbers will be announced on Oct. 29. At that time, "upon request of the board, Cavatorta will keep his role of 'officer responsible for preparing the company's financial reports until the approval of the Q3 results on that date."