Luxottica: further increase in 2007 dividend

The Board of Directors of Luxottica Group S.p.A., the world leader for the design, production, distribution and sale of eyewear in the top-range and luxury segments, met today in Milan. Chaired by Leonardo Del Vecchio, it approved the consolidated results (in US GAAP and IFRS) for the 12 months ended December 31, 2007, and proposed for 2007 a dividend of €0.49, a 17% increase against the previous year. The figure must be approved by the first and second call of the Ordinary Meeting of the Shareholders scheduled for May 13 and 14, 2008, in Milan.

At the meeting, the Board of Directors will submit the draft financial statements drawn up in accordance with IFRS accounting principles at December 31, 2007, for approval by the Shareholders. The Board of Directors today approved the consolidated financial statements drawn up in accordance with IFRS accounting principles and US GAAP.

The Luxottica Group's main consolidated results for 2007 were announced January 29 and February 7. In accordance with US GAAP, the other financial indicators for the 3- and 12-month periods ended December 31, 2007, are provided together with a detailed report of the financial results and relevant tables for the two periods.

Luxottica Group chief executive Andrea Guerra commented: '2007 was another highly satisfactory year for Luxottica. We continued to have record results in sales, operating margin and net profits, despite growing uncertainty in the macroeconomic scenario.An increase of about 15% in net profits has allowed us to keep the value high for our shareholders and we will be proposing a 2007 dividend that is 17% higher than last year and involves a payout of 45%.

'In this context, the factors that have continued to determine the growth of all the Group's components are, as always, the strength of our business model, the importance of our continuing investment plans, the excellent variety of our brand portfolio, the strength of our retail platform, and our increasing diversification and geographical penetration.

'We are particularly pleased about the results of our business in the North American market, where our dollar growth came to 6% of the year's sales. As regards the retail segment, our business model is allowing us to maintain very satisfactory results, especially in relation to the performance by all the other important retailers in North America, whose figures for the same period are, on average, decidedly less positive. We are now concentrating on the implementation of operational plans and integration projects with Oakley. During the first two months of the year, the wholesale division made good progress in all the world markets and in the retail division the overall trend was stable. Personally-speaking, I am very pleased about the speed at which we are completing many strategic projects with Oakley. We expect that the latter's contribution to the business will be fully demonstrated during its high season quarter, typically in the middle of the year'.

At December 31, 2007, the Group's net financial position stood at €2,872 million, equal to 2.5 times the EBITDA3 pro forma ratio.