Essilor International announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the 51% stake in Transitions Optical owned by PPG. The French giant already had a 49% stake in Transitions.
Under the agreement, Essilor will also acquire Intercast, a sun lens manufacturer based in Parma, Italy. The transaction, which is expected to close during the first half of 2014, will cost Essilor $1.73 billion, as well as a deferred payment of $125 million dollars over five years.
Essilor and PPG have jointly developed Transitions Optical since it was founded 23 years ago. We look forward to a continued strong relationship with PPG as they will be providing ongoing research and development services and optical dyes to Transitions Optical under multi-year agreements with Essilor, said President of Transitions Optical, Dave Cole.
Hubert Sagnières, Essilor's Chairman and CEO, said that the acquisition of Transitions Optical is fully aligned with Essilor's strategy. The integration process should be smooth due to the strong ties already existing between the two entities. It will enable us to boost expansion in the photochromic segment, which is growing twice as fast as the optical industry, notably in Asia, Latin America and Europe.
Sources : http://www.essilor.com/en/Press/News/Documents/2013/CP_ACCORD%20TOI%2029%20juillet_A.pdf
